Bring the Boys Home

by Gilbert L. Morris

  “What in the world are you doing?”

  Leah whirled, feeling red coming to her cheeks. “Oh, nothing, Eileen!”

  “Did I hear you talking to those clothes?” Eileen asked curiously. But she smiled, and a dimple touched her cheek.

  “I was just having a little fun.” Leah picked up a petticoat. “See—they’re all stiff as boards.”

  “They’re clean anyway. I’m glad for that.” Eileen touched a shirtwaist that was beginning to lose its stiffness. “It’s hard enough to wash in the summertime, but in the winter it’s terrible. I just hope the soap holds out.”

  “They didn’t have any anywhere in town that I could find,” Leah said. “All the stores are out of just about everything.” She gave the older woman a close look and said, “Eileen, what’ll we do when there’s no more soap?”

  “I don’t know, Leah. I just don’t know.”

  There was a tinge of hopelessness in Eileen’s voice, and in that she was like most Southerners. The Army of Northern Virginia was now trapped in Richmond, encircled by 100,000 Union soldiers. Every day the ring grew tighter, and everyone knew that things could not go on much longer. The South would have to surrender.

  Eileen bit her lip suddenly and dropped the shirtwaist. She went to a chair and sat down.

  Leah looked at her with surprise and crossed to stand beside the chair. “What’s wrong, Eileen? Don’t you feel well?”

  “Not really.”

  “What is it? I hope it’s not something serious.”

  Eileen looked up with a smile. “I’m afraid it is.”

  “Not smallpox?” Leah gasped.

  “No, not smallpox.” Eileen was pale, but she managed another smile. “I’m going to have a baby, Leah.”

  “A baby? You don’t mean it!”

  “Yes, I do.” She took Leah’s hand and squeezed it. “It’s an awful time for having a baby, isn’t it? Here in the middle of a war with our side about to be demolished.”

  Seeing the trouble in Eileen’s eyes, Leah leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, then gave her a quick hug. “I think it’s a wonderful time to have a baby, and it’ll be a beautiful baby too. It’ll either be beautiful like you are or be handsome like his father. Either way, it will be wonderful.”

  That seemed to cheer Eileen. She got up, saying, “I’m all right now. I just seem to get a little dizzy from time to time. Come along, and we’ll see what we’ve got for supper tonight.”

  The two women went into the kitchen, and as they began to put together a meal, Leah said quietly, “I get lonesome for home sometimes.”

  Home for Leah was Kentucky. It had been home for her family, the Carters, and for the Majors family too, until the war had separated them. Leah had brought Colonel Majors’s little girl to Richmond, but now that he was married again she felt in the way.

  She turned suddenly to Eileen. “I think I’d better be going home soon.”

  “Perhaps you should. Not that we’re not glad to have you, but with the war going the way it is, it’s not safe for you here.”

  There was a pause, and Leah had another thought. “But if you’re going to have a baby, you’ll probably need help.”

  “You can’t stay around here for that long!” Eileen exclaimed.

  “I can stay as long as you need help,” Leah said. “Let’s talk about it later.”

  Jeff mounted the skinny army horse and sat looking down at the animal’s bony shoulders. “I think I’m about as able to carry you as you are me,” he muttered.

  But a horse was a horse. In Petersburg there were few animals—there was no feed for them. He had obtained this mount only because his father had put in a word with the quartermaster.

  “Go on into Richmond and see if you can find anything for us to eat, Corporal,” the colonel had said.

  Jeff dug his heels into the bony sides of the horse, who obliged by moving forward at a slow walk. Jeff did not urge him. He knew that the animal was old and had not been well cared for. I feel sorry for all the horses, he thought.

  Still, it was always good to get out of the trenches, for the stench of death was there and the constant danger of being killed. All morning Jeff rode quietly along the road until he reached the capital.

  Richmond was depressing too, he thought. Most of the stores were closed, and what few factories were still running were manned by gaunt workers with gray faces. He found no food at all for sale—at least none that could be bought with Confederate money.

  “If I had greenbacks, I could buy some, I bet,” he said. Strangely, Union cash was more welcome in Richmond than its own currency. Confederate money was worth practically nothing. Jeff had his pockets stuffed full, but he knew that it would take a miracle to find anyone willing to trade good food for worthless paper.

  Then he had an idea. He took a road leading out of town and came, after an hour’s ride, to a large mansion sitting on the left side of the roadway. Kicking the horse with his heels, he muttered, “Come on, boy. It won’t hurt to try here.”

  When he slipped off the horse, he was greeted by a grinning black man, who said, “Hello, Mr. Jeff! I haven’t seen you lately.”

  “No, Zeno. Been in the trenches at Petersburg.”

  “Let me take that hoss. You go on in. Miss Lucy, she’s here on the place.”

  “Thank you, Zeno.”

  Jeff ran up the steps, knocked on the door, and was met by one of the house servants, a small black girl that he knew. “Hello, Verbena. Is Miss Lucy here?”

  “She sure is, Mr. Jeff. You come on in, and I’ll fetch her for you.”

  Jeff waited in the foyer.

  Lucy came, almost at once, and held out her hands. “Jeff!” She smiled up at him. “I’m so glad to see you!”

  He took her hands and looked down at the small girl. Lucy Driscoll was one of the prettiest girls Jeff had ever seen. “Good to see you too, Lucy,” he said. “How have you been?”

  “Just fine. Come on back! Cecil is here.” Her eyes twinkled for a moment, and she said roguishly, “But I forgot, officers and regulars don’t mix, do they?”

  “Not very well.”

  At that moment a young man wearing the uniform of a Confederate second lieutenant emerged from the drawing room. “Jeff! Good to see you!” Cecil Taylor, at seventeen, was thin as a rail. He had chestnut hair and bright blue eyes and a crooked grin. “I don’t guess we have to worry about ‘sirs’ around here,” he added.

  The three young people went into the drawing room, where Lucy asked one of the servants to bring in cake and tea. She served it herself, asking Jeff, “How are things at Petersburg?”

  “Not very good,” Jeff said glumly. He glanced at Cecil. “I guess you know more about the whole picture than I do.”

  Shaking his head, Cecil said, “It’s not the same thing. I’ve asked a hundred times to be put on active duty in the lines, but they won’t let me go.”

  Jeff swallowed a piece of cake. “I wish they’d let us change jobs. You’d be welcome to mine.”

  “Aw, you don’t mean that, Jeff.”

  Actually Jeff knew he didn’t. He wanted to be with his unit, what was left of the Stonewall Brigade, and he well knew that he did not want to leave his father or his brother. Still, he also knew that Cecil felt bad about not getting in on the fighting, so he said, “Don’t worry. Pretty soon you’ll be at it. I think everybody will.”

  “I feel like a slacker,” Cecil said.

  “You’re not that!” Lucy put a hand on Cecil’s arm. “You have to do what your officers tell you. If they told you to fight, you’d fight in a minute.”

  Jeff noted with interest her sparkling eyes and that her fondness for Cecil showed in her face. He knew that Cecil had been in love with Leah, but after finding she didn’t care for him, it would be natural enough for him to turn to Lucy Driscoll. The two had grown up together, and both were children of wealthy planters.

  After a while Jeff admitted, “Actually, I’ve come begging. I don’t suppose you�
��ve got anything to eat I could take back to some of my friends at the front.”

  “I’ll bet we do!” Lucy jumped up. “Let me get on a coat, and we’ll go see what we can find.”

  They actually filled a sack with an assortment of food. Jeff flung the bag over the horse’s back and mounted behind it. Then he reached down and shook Lucy’s hand. “You’re making some Confederate soldiers mighty happy, Lucy.” He smiled at her. “I thank you for all of them.”

  “Come back, Jeff, and don’t get hurt,” she said.

  “I wish I were going with you, Jeff.”

  “You stay here, Cecil. You take care of Lucy now.”

  Cecil looked at Lucy, and it seemed something passed between them. But then the lieutenant looked back at Jeff. “I sure wish I could do more than push papers around.”

  As Jeff slowly moved down the driveway on the skinny horse, he thought, Those two are going to fall in love. I’m not much on romance, but I know it when I see it.

  “Jeff! You come in this house!”

  Jeff had been standing on the step when Leah opened the door. He let her grab him by the arm and drag him inside.

  “Esther,” she called, “come and see your big brother!”

  Three-year-old Esther came trotting in. She squealed with delight and ran for Jeff. He caught her up, tossed her high, and said, “How’s my baby sister?”

  “Jeff—Jeff! Come on, I’ll show you my dolls!”

  “All right. Let’s see your dolls.”

  He sat on the floor as Esther named off her dolls, giving their family histories.

  “She talks like a parrot, doesn’t she?” Jeff said to Leah.

  She sat on the floor with Jeff and his small sister. “Yes, she does. She’s very bright.”

  At that moment Eileen came in. “Jeff! I didn’t know you were here!”

  Jeff scrambled to his feet, walked over to his stepmother, and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Now, that’s from your husband. He’ll do better when he gets here.”

  “How is he, Jeff?”

  “He’s fine!” This was not exactly true, for nobody in the front lines at Petersburg was fine, but Jeff wanted to encourage her.

  “Well, I’m going to fix you the best supper you ever had, and you can take some back to Nelson.”

  Jeff was glad that his father had found a companion. Though he had been opposed to their marriage at first, he really liked Eileen.

  “I’ll go chop wood for my supper,” he said.

  “Take me too,” Esther said.

  Finally, after much pleading, Leah bundled her up, and the three went outside. Jeff split the wood, enjoying that job as he always did, and they went in only when Eileen called that supper was ready.

  It was indeed a good supper, better than he had had in some time. Eileen had managed to find a little beef and some vegetables, and Jeff wolfed down the food hungrily.

  After the meal, he and Leah sat in the parlor playing with Esther. They had a moment alone when Eileen put Esther to bed.

  “I just came from over at the Driscoll place,” Jeff said.

  Instantly a flush came to Leah’s cheeks. “I still feel guilty about the way I treated Cecil—just trying to make you jealous. And I still have trouble forgiving myself for it.”

  Seeing her face, Jeff said quickly, “I know you feel bad about it—but I don’t think you have to.” He grinned broadly.

  “I don’t know why you’d say that.”

  “Because I think you would’ve made Cecil miserable if you had married him.” His grin widened. “You’re enough to drive a man crazy!”

  “Well, I like that!”

  “I honestly don’t think you need to worry though. It looks to me like Cecil has his eye on Lucy.”

  After a moment, Leah nodded. “I hope so. They’d be perfect for each other. They’ve grown up together, and they know all about each other.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Jeff said, concealing a grin this time. “He’ll know all her faults, and she’ll know all of his.”

  “That’s right,” Leah said, and she punched him sharply. “And, therefore, there won’t be any bad surprises.”

  “I just hope Cecil doesn’t have to fight. This war’s going to be over soon. He could get himself killed meantime.”

  “So could you!”

  “Oh, I know, but I’m used to fighting. I’ve learned how to handle it, but Cecil’s kind of fragile.”

  The next morning when Jeff left, Leah held up Esther for him to kiss.

  The child grabbed his hair and held on tightly. “Don’t go, Jeff!” she wailed.

  “Got to go, sweetheart,” Jeff whispered. Unexpectedly, he leaned past her and kissed Leah on the cheek. “Now, that’s all the kisses you get for a while,” he admonished her. He laughed at her indignation, then said, “Take care of everything here, Leah.”

  As the women and the little girl watched Jeff ride out on the scrawny horse, Leah said, “I wish he didn’t have to go.”

  “I wish none of them had to go,” Eileen said quietly.

  3

  The Last Battle

  The Civil War had gone on for almost five years. Hundreds of thousands lay in graves all over the South, and others, crippled by the war, had gone back to their homes. If the war had been a play, the Battle of Petersburg marked what might be called the last act. The Confederates, starving and freezing in the filthy trenches, held grimly on. However, death, disease, and desertion continued.

  General Lee informed the authorities in Richmond that the end was near. When he returned to camp, he told his son, “I have been up to see the Congress, and they do not seem to be able to do anything except eat peanuts and chew tobacco while my army is starving.”

  One Southern soldier wrote in that freezing January of 1865, “There are a good many of us who believe this shooting match has been carried on long enough. A government that has run out of rations can’t expect to do much more fighting…. Our rations are all the way from a pint to a quart of cornmeal a day, and occasionally a piece of bacon large enough to grease your plate.”

  General Grant continued to push against the Confederates. Lee’s line was now stretched more than thirty-seven miles, and he had only 35,000 men able to fight. Lee’s only alternative was to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond and join Gen. Joseph Johnston in the Carolinas.

  General Lee commanded Gen. John B. Gordon to attack, and Gordon decided to throw his strength against Fort Stedman, which lay near Grant’s major supply line. Almost half of the Confederate forces were to be thrown into this attack, and at 4:00 A.M. on March 25, General Gordon gave the order to advance. It was to be the last concerted effort of the Confederates against the Union army.

  Jeff looked up with surprise when Tom said, “Well, look who’s here, Jeff.”

  Jeff got to his feet at once, for none other than Cecil Taylor was the subject of Tom’s remark. The two stood and saluted Cecil, who, grinning broadly, returned their salutes.

  “At ease, men,” Cecil said. He was wearing a spotless gray uniform, which contrasted violently with the dirty, ragged dress of the two before him. “I’m glad to see you, Corporal,” Cecil said. He winked, still grinning broadly. “I told you that I’d get down to where the real fighting is. I just pestered them until they finally would’ve done anything to get rid of me.”

  Jeff glanced at Tom and figured that they both had the same thought. He just doesn’t know what he’s getting into—but he’ll find out!

  Jeff said, “Was everything all right back home, sir?”

  “You mean Leah and your family? Yes,” Cecil said. “I made a point to go by and check on them. As a matter of fact, I brought letters for all of you.” He rummaged in the letter pouch he wore suspended by a strap and came up with three pieces of folded paper. “No envelopes, and it looks like they had to use wallpaper, but at least they’re letters.”

  “They sure are!” Jeff said, grabbing them greedily. “I’ll take this one to Pa right awa
y!”

  “I’ll just go along with you. I’ve been assigned to his command,” Cecil said. “You can introduce me formally.”

  As the boys started toward headquarters, Jeff automatically hunched down. When a shell came screaming over, he reached up and, without apology, jerked Cecil down to a crouch. The two leaned against the dirt fortification as the exploding shell rained a shower of mud and debris down on their heads.

  Cecil looked shocked. He brushed at the dirt that had fallen on his shoulders and tried to smile. “Well, that one missed us.”

  “Yes, sir, it did. Come along,” Jeff said, “and keep your head down, sir.”

  Jeff led Cecil to his father’s command post, where Colonel Majors’s eyes opened wide when Jeff announced his companion’s new assignment. “Well, we need all the help we can get. We lost the lieutenant of C Company yesterday. You can fill in for him, Lieutenant.”

  “You think we’ll get to see some action?” Cecil asked eagerly.

  Jeff grinned slightly, but the colonel kept a straight face. “I think there’s a very good possibility of that. The main thing, Lieutenant, is to survive.”

  “Yes, sir, but do you think there’ll be a charge against the Yankees?”

  Colonel Nelson looked over to where the Union troops were firmly entrenched. The men over there had fresh uniforms, good food, plenty of guns and cannon, and there were plenty of them. “I hope not,” he said. “We’ll do well just to hang on here.”

  Jeff noted the disappointment on young Taylor’s face.

  His father said in kindly fashion, “I just want to see all my men get home alive, so take care of yourself.”

  Jeff went back to his post, where he found Tom waiting for him. “Did you give the letter to Pa?”

  “I forgot all about it!” Jeff said, snapping his fingers with annoyance. “Well, I’ll take it back after while. What do you think about Cecil?”

  “I think you’d better stick close to him,” Tom said. He was tired and dirty and needed a shave. Weariness had rimmed his eyes with dark circles, as it had most of the men. He slumped down on the ammunition box at his feet. “He’s just too eager. He could get himself killed—and he could get some of the other men killed. You watch him close, Jeff.”