by Murray Pura
Lyndel closed her eyes and pressed the fingers of one hand against her forehead. “This is so difficult.”
“Ja,” Levi responded, almost in a whisper.
“Even though I believe it’s God’s will it’s still difficult.”
“Ja.”
Even so early in the day tall white clouds had begun to pile up in the east and form thunderheads over the green land. Farms came and went. It seemed to Lyndel to be only moments before they were approaching Harrisburg. She hadn’t visited the city in years. The sudden sight of hundreds of soldiers in blue uniforms lined up beside the tracks startled her—she had only seen two or three in Elizabethtown over the past year. Several large black cannons chained to flatcars made her dig her fingers into the fabric of her seat. The train slowed as it approached the station, passing more soldiers and horses and artillery. Suddenly it stopped before the platform was even in sight.
“Why are we stopping here?” she asked.
Levi shrugged. “Who knows? Harrisburg is a busy place now. There’s an army camp and many trains running through from east and west.”
“Can’t you look out and see?”
“Of course.”
Levi stood up and tried to open the window. It was jammed. He worked at it and banged it with the heel of his hand before he was able to get it to respond and he could thrust his head out. All he could see was rolling stock and soldiers. A sergeant with a pipe in his mouth glanced up at him.
“They’re filling up the cars with troops just ahead of you, lad,” the sergeant said with a distinctive accent. “It will be a few more minutes.”
“Couldn’t we just climb down and walk to the depot?” asked Levi. “We need to change trains.”
“Ah, no, they’ll not let you do that. Too dangerous to be wandering about on these tracks. Trains are coming and going by the minute and the engineers aren’t always extra careful. Where are you headed?”
“Washington.”
“What’s there?”
“My sister is going to nurse.”
The sergeant spotted Lyndel and raised his hat. “Wonderful. Grand.” Then he looked back at Levi. “And you—are you going there to enlist?”
The train suddenly shook itself and lurched forward.
“Thank you!” Levi called to the sergeant and sat back down as the locomotive inched its way ahead. He shook his head at his sister. “I’m glad I didn’t have to answer that question.”
“You can always say you are going to nurse as well.”
“I don’t think that’s the answer a soldier is looking for.”
“I’m causing everyone a lot of trouble. Mama, Papa, my sisters, you. I’m sorry for that.”
“I’ll be all right.” Levi stared out at a column of soldiers marching along a street. “What has Nathaniel told you about Lewinsville?”
“What do you mean?”
“You never told me how he became a corporal. Did he shoot someone?”
Lyndel stared at him. “My goodness, no. Is that what you think?”
“He had to do something.”
“He saved some of his men from Jeb Stuart’s cavalry. They would have been captured. He kept them hidden until Stuart’s troopers rode off.”
“Is that all?”
“I suppose he kept everyone calm and helped keep his company organized. So his captain thinks he’s a natural leader.”
“Has he ever fired a shot?”
“No. A few of his boys fired their muskets at Lewinsville. But none of them have ever been in a battle and Lewinsville was no battle. For which I thank God. I would like all of this to be over before Nathaniel has to aim his weapon at anyone. Or have them aim their weapons at him. Didn’t he talk to you about this in his letters?”
A small smile came over Levi’s face. “Not much. Most of all he was asking about you.”
“But he and I were writing each other.”
“He was afraid one of the other men from church would ask to court you.”
Lyndel half-laughed. “As if I would say yes. Does Nathaniel think I’m as fickle as an English girl?”
“It’s been over a year that he’s been gone. And he tells me you’ve never told him you loved him.”
Lyndel struggled to reply. “It’s not…that I don’t care for him…I just need to see him again before I…speak those words.”
“Why?”
Lyndel felt the blood in her face and throat. “I need to find out… what I feel when I see him.”
Levi frowned, the lines wrinkling his young, handsome face. “You mean you don’t know what you feel?”
Her blue eyes had become gray. “As he says, it’s been more than a year. I can’t…use those words until I see him face-to-face. That’s all. Please don’t ask me about this again, Levi.”
“All right.”
“You find that strange?”
“I find women strange.” He looked out the window at a long string of cavalry mounts. “I’m glad it’s enough for me to shoe horses.”
“What about Mary Yoder?”
Levi continued to stare out the window. “I will let you know when she asks to be shod.”
They didn’t miss their train for Baltimore, but they had scarcely pulled out of the station before they came to a stop for two hours. When they did start up again the train traveled slowly for another hour. Lyndel tried to rest, her head pillowed on Levi’s jacket, which he had rolled up against the window for her.
“Danke,” she murmured, closing her eyes.
He didn’t wake her at Baltimore, where the train only stopped for half an hour before continuing on. By the time they began to slow for the Washington station a sudden thunderclap made her sit up, blue eyes wide and glittering. Lyndel stared out the window as if the train had taken them to the moon. “Where are we?”
“Washington.”
It was now late afternoon and the sun was setting in a thick bank of red and black clouds that shimmered with lightning. Still perplexed, Lyndel gazed at faces lit by gas lamps, faces that seemed to have emerged from her dreams. Her skin was pale.
“Are you all right?” Levi asked.
“I just…can’t seem to orient myself…I was sleeping so deeply and thought we were marching with the army…searching for Nathaniel and Corinth.” She paused to look at Levi. “Wasn’t that friend of yours supposed to meet us?”
Levi pointed. “He’s right there on the platform. Hiram Wright.”
“Why, he has red hair just like me.”
“Not just like you. His is shorter. And the color of sweet potatoes.”
“Whereas mine is like tomatoes?”
Levi grinned. “That’s for you to say, Ginger. Nathaniel would tell you it was a glorious crimson flame.”
The train had lurched to a stop, and the two travelers stood and gathered their things and made their way through the now crowded aisle to the exit.
As they made their way to where Hiram Wright stood waiting, the young man doffed his derby and took Lyndel’s suitcase from her hand. “Your reputation precedes you, Miss Keim.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wright. What reputation is that?”
“Your brother said I would find you fascinating.”
“He said that?” She shot a quick glance at Levi, her eyes narrow. “How can you find someone fascinating you’ve only seen for less than one minute?”
“Hair. Face. Posture. The way you carry yourself. You must remember I’m a journalist. I’m used to sizing people up quickly. Now, please follow me and we’ll make our way out of here.” He turned and led them through a crowd of people and soldiers.
“I trust you won’t have to rewrite your first impression a week from now,” Lyndel said.
“Not unless it’s to use more superlatives, Miss Keim.” He grinned, turning in her direction, the freckles that covered his face moving with his mouth and lips. “Levi tells me you have a beau with General Gibbon’s brigade.”
Lyndel hesitated at Hiram’s use of the word beau but decide
d not to make an issue of it. “He is in Colonel Meredith’s regiment.”
“Right. The 19th Indiana. The rest of the brigade is from Wisconsin. I saw them on parade once. A distinctive bunch. Tall black Hardee hats, you know, like short top hats, but slanted in toward the top. Some with the brim pinned up on one side. Black ostrich plumes. Long jackets. Very different in looks from the other Union brigades.”
“What is your opinion of their—spirit?”
Hiram glanced at Lyndel as they walked. “They were fine at Lewinsville.”
“But Lewinsville wasn’t a battle.”
“No, it was not.” He pointed to his carriage. It was drawn by two horses. “They are a good bunch of men. A little rowdy. On July 4th they held horse races and foot races while the other regiments lazed about—it seems the Indianans have an overabundance of energy. They’re spoiling for a fight, Miss Keim, that’s the only way I can put it. One day they’ll get it.”
“Do you know their whereabouts, Mr. Wright?”
“Virginia. Out and about in the vicinity of Manassas Junction. But Stonewall Jackson isn’t there anymore. So there’s no fight to be had. However I’m of the firm belief that Stonewall will be back. He’s not a man to back away from a contest.”
“You consider war a contest?”
“I do not, Miss Keim. But some of the commanders in both armies do. And Stonewall Jackson is one of them.”
Lightning flashed over their heads, followed by a long, low rumble. “Perhaps it will be all over this summer.”
Hiram’s youthful face turned yellow in the sudden flare of a gas lamp. “I know that’s the common opinion. I do not share it.”
“What is your opinion, Mr. Wright?”
“It will take years for the Union to win this war, Miss Keim. And they could very well lose it with the generals we have.”
The horizon filled with light and then went black. The thunder was moving farther to the south and east. Hiram’s words brought a tightness to Lyndel’s stomach.
“I hope you’re not correct, Mr. Wright,” she said.
He placed her case in his carriage. “It happens on occasion. Though the occasions are infrequent.” He climbed into the driver’s seat. “There is room up here for the three of us. Welcome to Washington, both of you. We’ll drop by the hospital first, Miss Keim. The matron, Mrs. McKean, asked me to bring you by when you arrived.”
“And that is the one called Armory…Armory…?”
“Armory Square. Just over on the mall in front of the Capitol dome.” Hiram flicked the reins. “Away we go, Sally. Away we go, Kate. You’ll be boarding with a prominent Washington family. Levi will be bunking with me in Georgetown. I hope these arrangements are acceptable to you.”
“Thank you very much for all your work on our behalf, Mr. Wright. Though I’d be just as happy taking a blanket and pillow with me into someone’s barn.”
Hiram laughed as he steered through the traffic of carriages and pedestrians. “That would be rich. Ladies don’t sleep in barns out here, Miss Keim. And the truth is, there aren’t that many barns anyway. You’ll have to settle for a four-poster bed with a canopy.”
Levi sat between Hiram and his sister. She leaned forward to get a better look at Hiram to see if he was teasing her. “Mr. Wright, I’m just a plain girl who is used to plain Amish ways. I certainly do not require a four-poster with a canopy.”
“Plain you are not, Miss Keim, not with hair and eyes and face such as God has given you. The bed you will have to take up with your hosts. Perhaps they have a spare stable where you can spread your quilt.”
Armory Square Hospital consisted of rows of long, low white buildings like barracks neatly laid out, with a picket fence in front. Hiram pulled up in front of one with an arch and a sign over its door. He helped Lyndel step down onto a small wooden platform and avoid the mud and puddles of the street. Then he escorted her inside, with Levi following.
Mrs. McKean had seen the carriage drive up and was waiting. Tall and broad, in a white dress and apron with her hair pinned to perfection and tucked rigidly under a cap, she extended a large hand to Lyndel. “Welcome, Miss Keim. I understand you have come all the way from Pennsylvania to volunteer?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She looked Lyndel up and down. “You are perhaps too pretty to nurse wounded soldiers. But you have a firm grip despite all that. Hiram said you were a farm girl.”
“I am, ma’am.”
“Please call me Miss Sharon. This will be infinitely harder than milking cows or churning butter.”
“I have nursed wounded men, ma’am—Miss Sharon.”
“Have you? Where?”
Lyndel struggled under the onslaught. “Two…runaways…hid in our barn last spring.”
Miss Sharon raised her thick eyebrows. “Did they? And was your nursing successful?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“You believe so? What became of them?”
“One was recaptured. The slave hunters—hanged the other.”
Miss Sharon paused. Lyndel fought to keep her face strong but she could feel her lower lip trembling as she thought of Charlie Preston swinging from the sugar maple. Miss Sharon flicked her eyes over Lyndel’s navy blue dress and black apron and kapp.
“Your attire is—different. But suitable, I suppose. I prefer white aprons and caps however.”
“So we dress in Lancaster County, Miss Sharon. I just came from the train. I haven’t had time to change.”
“Nor will you. I have five nurses down with typhoid fever. I apologize for throwing you in at the deep end of the pond but I need you right now and I need you to stay through the night.” She looked at Hiram. “Thank you for bringing Miss Keim here, Mr. Wright. I will see she gets to her lodgings in the morning. George will drive her.”
Hiram held his derby hat in his hands. “It’s no trouble for me, Miss Sharon. Or her brother here, Levi Keim.”
Miss Sharon briefly inclined her head. “Mr. Keim. I’m told you will be going to the front in Mr. Wright’s company to enlist with the ambulance service.”
Levi had removed his broad-brimmed straw hat. The news surprised him and he twisted the hat about in his hands. “I had thought I might be of some use here.”
“No doubt you would be, Mr. Keim. But we lack strong, healthy men at the front to carry the wounded safely from the field, sometimes under fire. A strapping boy like you would be of enormous benefit to the Union as an ambulance attendant.”
Levi glanced at Lyndel. “Well…”
Miss Sharon caught his look. “Your sister will be quite safe here, young man. Believe me, my girls are treated with honor and respect in this hospital and in the community. No fear of that.”
Levi nodded quickly. “Yes, ma’am. Of course.”
“Now you two had best be off. Miss Keim has much work to do and not much time to learn it before our next casualties come in from Virginia. Thank you—you may come by for her at eight o’clock if you insist.”
She shooed Hiram and Levi toward the door like cattle. Levi craned his neck to look back at Lyndel. “My sister’s been traveling all day, ma’am.”
“She’s young and strong. She’ll be fine.”
“I’ll telegraph Mother and Father and tell them we’ve arrived safely,” he called to his sister.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
Miss Sharon shut the door behind Levi and Hiram. Then she picked up a lamp.
“Follow me, Miss Keim. You may leave your travel bag here by the desk for the present.”
Lyndel walked behind Miss Sharon down the hall into a ward with beds neatly lining both sides. The lightning from the east ignited the room for a moment and clearly showed what the quiet moans and gasps had already told her—bearded heads sunk on pillows, bodies without arms, legs without feet, faces without eyes. She smelled blood and clenched her hands into fists. The thunder banged and almost made her jump. The storm had moved closer to Washington again.
Once the lightning
was gone, the ward was dark but for two or three lamps. There was only one nurse and she was bending over a bed at the far end. Miss Sharon continued to stare at the soldiers, holding the light in her hand at eye level. For the longest time she said nothing and Lyndel waited, praying.
Lord, this is why I have come. What did you feel like inside when you saw all the suffering and death? Help me to make a difference at least something like the way you made a difference.
“They need to be shaved and have their hair combed, Miss Keim,” Miss Sharon suddenly spoke up. “Their wounds and sores need to be cleaned again and dried. Fresh bandages must be applied. If they are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Should they ask for hot coffee there is a pot on the kitchen stove. If they are restless, comfort them. If they are sleeping, let them sleep.” She turned to face Lyndel and her eyes glistened in the light she held. “I have found such simple things save lives. Just such simple things. If we could do that for all of them within an hour of their wounding we’d save so many more.
“But nurses like you and me are not permitted on the battlefield. It takes days to bring them to Washington. Think how many more would live if we were there with them, Miss Keim.”
Lightning stabbed at the windows again. The thunder roared almost immediately. The storm was right on top of them. Suddenly rain began to crash against the roof and the panes of the windows.
This was only one of many buildings full of casualties. And Lyndel was aware that Armory Square was only one of many hospitals in Washington. The South had their hospitals too. All of them with room after room of shattered men.
She shivered as she continued to stare at the soldiers in their beds. Miss Sharon watched her carefully. Then she spoke quietly, “You will be all right, my dear. You will get used to it.”
Lyndel didn’t take her eyes from the men as rain whipped the building and thunder made the walls shake.
“I have come to the war,” she whispered.
Miss Sharon stared at her and finally nodded, the lamplight gleaming on her face and hands. “Yes. You have come to the war.”