When he re-entered Terry’s shelter, he found that the general had his two Navy Colt revolvers on the table for inspection. He had left them slung on the back of his ramshackle chair.
Terry looked a little guilty. An officer did not handle another’s sidearm.
“Like those?” Claude asked.
“Sorry, I am intrigued. They are quite different, the one from the other.”
“The service model was a gift. I must keep that, but the engraved one is a masterpiece, handmade for me. I give it to you in token of our new friendship.” The money was nothing to Devereux. Terry’s face showed how much he desired the pistol.
The staff drew near to look at it.
“Well, thank you, General. Did you ever use this revolver in battle?”
“I did. I used it to kill the man carrying the plain one. I accepted it as a gift from him. He had no further use for it. Anyone like a drink?”
They were taken aback by this and peered at him in the yellow, flickering light.
“Ah, well, do not be sad. As I say, he no longer needed it.” He found his silver flask.
The Irish sergeant held out his hand and Claude gave it to him. “Have a big slug, John,” he said.
“Me name’s Padraig, Sor, not John.
An aide-de-camp entered and announced that signal rockets were in the air over the fort. This signal told of the fall of Fort Fisher. They went outside to listen to the cheering and the steam whistles of the fleet. They walked toward the Sally Port Gate.
Too bad, Devereux thought. If that jackass Bragg had attacked I could have shot you, Alfred. That might have done some good.
Major General Ames waited in the center of the surrendered fortification. With him were Chase Whiting and William Lamb, the Confederate commanders. Terry and Devereux shook their hands. The two Southern officers departed, headed for a boat and transportation into captivity.
“Terry,” Claude said, holding out his hand. ”My best wishes, you have won. You have won everything. The loss of the port at Wilmington will finish the Confederacy. You have won.”
“We have won,” Terry corrected.
“Yes, of course, we have won… I am going to walk around this place so that I can remember this night forever.”
“Be careful, many of these rebels are not disarmed,” Terry said. He and his staff left to return to their dugout headquarters where more drinks and a few hours sleep awaited.
Claude walked to the Cape Fear River bank, lit a cigar and considered the scattered lights across the stream. He thought of the implacable advance of Sherman’s army from Savannah. This would begin in the next few days. The land across the river would soon be at Sherman’s mercy. There was little left of the country Devereux had fought to defend.
Turning away he walked into the center of Fort Fisher. He stopped to talk to a group of Confederate prisoners and asked one where the magazine might be. The man looked at the uniform and the stars and pointed. As he approached this destination Devereux saw that a group of federal troops had chosen to spread their blankets on the flat roof and were asleep or laughing and joking with comrades.
There was a sentry at the entrance. Devereux asked to see the interior. Flattered by the attention of a general officer the man opened the wooden door and entered, holding up a lantern so that they could see. As soon as they were underground and away from the door, Claude clubbed the man senseless with his remaining pistol. “Perhaps that will make amends for what I did to you,” he said aloud to the man long dead by his hand in the Wilderness.
Deep in the magazine, he inserted lengths of slow burning fuse in several powder kegs. He cut the fuses for five minutes and lit them with his cigar.
On the way to the door, he found that the guard was awake and trying to crawl along the sand floor towards the entrance. You are a tough one, he thought. Sighing a bit at the necessity for further violence, he hit his victim again to finish him, hit him cruelly and with the intention of killing him. He rolled two barrels of gunpowder onto the body to hold it in place for a few minutes. He thought the man was dead, but wanted to be sure that there would be no more “resurrections.” Emerging, he closed and bolted the wooden door and looking up, said goodnight to men sitting on the edge of the roof, swinging their legs and talking to their messmates. He walked to the Sally Port Gate, moving slowly though crowds of drunken Union soldiers and marines. They seemed to have found the fort’s sutler shop and its store of liquor.
He was halfway to Terry’s headquarters when the magazine exploded in a fountain of fire and falling debris. He did not look back.
He thought of the return to Washington and of the state of his life. He was more determined than ever to leave the United States.
On the 19th of January, Sherman’s armies began their march north through South Carolina. The aim was to ravage the state more severely than Georgia. This was intended to be a suitable punishment for the state’s role in the instigation of secession. The navy followed Sherman up the coast escorting the army’s maritime supply convoys.
Life at home resumed its deceptively normal appearance in spite of hurried preparations for departure for France and safety.
On the 3rd of February, Devereux accompanied President Lincoln to a “Peace Conference” on board a war ship anchored in Hampton Roads off Fortress Monroe. Lincoln had tried for several months to find some common ground with the Confederate government for an end to hostilities. The president wanted to arrange surrender on terms for the South that would not permanently embitter the division and obstruct the reunification of the United States. He wanted this to happen before Sherman reached Grant in southeast Virginia. He suspected that if that merger of forces occurred before there was a cease fire, the radicals in Congress would seek to reduce the South to subject territories for many years.
The three Confederate commissioners listened to him carefully.
Lincoln’s proposal was simple. They must accept the 13th Amendment to the constitution. This amendment ended slavery in the United States. The amendment was then in the process of ratification in the North. They must also accept their future and perpetual role as integral parts of the Union. They must, of course, surrender their forces. If they did these things, they would find that his government would be generous in the manner of their renewed assimilation as sovereign states in a country which had a future of greatness.
The Confederates refused. Such terms were more than they were authorized to discuss. They offered instead an alliance and trade union of the two countries. They also proposed a joint expedition against the French army in Mexico.
Lincoln asked what would happen to Mexico once the French and their friends there were defeated. The Southerner replied that it had been a mistake to leave the country after total victory in the Mexican War.
That ended the conference. There was no common ground that could serve as the basis of a peace. The war would be fought out in blood and fire to its logical end.
On the 9th of February, President Lincoln reported to the congressional “Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War” concerning the results of the Hampton Roads conference. This committee was formed in 1862 following the Union defeat at Ball’s Bluff. The committee served as a foil for presidential war powers and seemed to be obsessed with a supposed lack of “purity” in US Army enmity for the South and its leaders.
The committee was displeased that Lincoln offered the South such terms without its agreement.
Senator Sumner of Massachusetts sitting in the audience for the hearing said to Lincoln’s back that, “They should never be re-admitted to the Union.”
Representative Thaddeus Stephens of Pennsylvania sitting beside Sumner told the president that he was wrong to be so generous. “They should be scourged with scorpions. We should scatter their people to the far corners of North America and re-settle their lands with the righteous.”
Lincoln did not reply but suggested that Devereux might tell them of the fall of Fort Fisher from the perspective of a witn
ess.
Claude had been warned of the probability of this testimony and gave a masterful performance brimming over with subtle self-deprecation, good manners and a wealth of detail.
All present gave him a standing ovation. Senator Ben Wade, the chairman, shook his hand and offered him the thanks of Congress.
Sumner was particularly fulsome in his praise after adjournment. Too bad Preston Brooks did not finish you with that cane, Devereux mused even as Sumner pumped his hand and thanked him for his loyalty.
On the 15th Stanton called him to his office and handed him orders brevetting him to the rank of Major General of Volunteers. “The Regular Army rank will come eventually,” Stanton said in a surly, muffled tone. They stood silent for a moment and then Claude departed leaving the door open behind him. Going down the stairs he heard it slam.
Sherman captured Columbia, South Carolina on the 17th. The citizens of the town were pleased that his behavior towards them was restrained but pleasant. He settled into one of the grand houses of the state capital, but was awakened by the sound of horses and fire engine bells. The small city was on fire. Sherman turned out his men to fight the fires, but much of the town burned. The culprits were never found.
On the 22nd, Wilmington, North Carolina fell to Sherman’s advance and Devereux’s nightmare vision was fulfilled.
On the 27th, Sheridan departed Winchester, Virginia with 10,000 cavalry to ride south and destroy whatever force Jubal Early had left in the Shenandoah Valley. Once that was done, he and Grant agreed that he would cross the Blue Ridge Mountains and ride to join Grant at Petersburg. The general in chief wished to assemble so large a force that Lee could not extend himself far enough southwest of Petersburg to continue protecting the Southside Railroad that ran away to North Carolina. Without that railroad Lee could not maintain his army in position to defend Richmond. It was expected that with the conquest of the capital of the Confederacy and Sherman’s arrival in Virginia, the four year drama would end.
On the 2nd of March, Sheridan’s cavalry destroyed what remained of Early’s forces at Waynesboro, Virginia. After a day of rest for his horses and men, Sheridan started across Rockfish Gap in the mountains on his way to Charlottesville.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
— Escape —
On the 4th of March Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term as the 16th president of the United States. Claude sat two rows behind him on a platform placed on the Capitol steps where he was sworn. Andrew Johnson, the new vice president spoke first. His speech was confused. He spoke too long and his words seemed slurred.
He’s drunk again, Claude thought. Drunk again. When Lincoln stood to take the oath Devereux could see over the rail to the right and down onto a platform ten feet below.
Among the Faces was that of John Wilkes Booth. The actor stared at Lincoln in obvious fascination.
Next to Booth stood a large, blond youth with the hardened, weathered face of a combat veteran. The man nodded to Devereux. There was a slight smile partially hidden in the angles of his mouth.
My God, another one who knows… Devereux bowed and turned away in confusion and despair.
The president spoke:
“… On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered, that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has his own purposes. ‘… for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.’ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are altogether true and righteous.’”
Devereux’s heart sank at the words. We must be gone. He must let us go soon…
Hope accompanied him to the ball at Willard’s Hotel that night. She was a splendid sight in red silk. Her milky white shoulders and blonde hair were so striking that she was easily the “belle of the ball,” The golden light produced by the massive crystal chandeliers and surrounding mirrored walls made her seem even more beautiful than usual.
Claude stood by the bar at one side of the big room and watched her dance through the evening hours. For this most formal of occasions he wore full dress with epaulets and a gold sash.
Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Salmon Chase, the Chief Justice were at the far end of the ballroom.
A waltz ended and Hope returned to him. She was “shining” a bit from the exertion. He brought her a flute of champagne.
Mary Lincoln approached to speak to Hope and after a moment the two women drifted away to a group of cabinet wives.
“Your thoughts, Devereux?” the man beside him asked. It was William Davenport, an assistant secretary of war. Claude had known the man since the days following his return from Europe when Colonel Lafayette Baker pursued the suspicion that Claude and his brother might be Confederate spies. Baker lost in the attempt to prove that true.
Claude looked around the room and saw Baker in a corner with Wilson Ford. They were watching Hope, who was involved in an animated conversation with Senator Wade’s wife.
Davenport and John Hay, Lincoln’s secretary waited for an answer.
“What will we do with them all?” Devereux asked Davenport.
“Who?
“He means the Confederates,” Hay interjected.
Devereux nodded. “Yes, them, the leaders, I mean. I imagine that the men will be sent home. What else could we do with them?”
“Yes,” Davenport responded. “What else can we do if we expect to put the country back together? The government will not be as it was. This is a new beginning…”
“And the leaders?” Devereux persisted. “I know so many of them. Many are family friends, clients of our bank…”
The two war department officials laughed at the suggestion that he was thinking of the bank’s business.
“I don’t think they will be tried for treason,
” Hay said. “The constitution is too vague on the subject of secession for anyone to want to open that issue in court. The president has been discussing that in camera with Chase. They are agreed. That will not happen. This applies as well to former US military and naval officers. We have had a look at the records in the departments and nearly all submitted their resignations when Buchanan was still in office and were released from the services…”
“Were they not still obligated to the Union?” Davenport asked. “Many think such oaths are “sacramental” in nature and forever binding.”
Hay laughed. “Many people are wrong about a lot of things. It has been decided that such an argument would not carry the day in a civilian court, and that is where such trials would be held. These men are technically civilians since the Confederacy is not, from our point of view, a real government.”
“Military commissions?” Claude enquired. “We have used a lot of these to try civilians, especially in places like Missouri. I reviewed many of the sentences for the president before he signed the death warrants.”
Hay shook his head. “Chase thinks that the constitutionality of these will not be upheld when there is a serious challenge in a ‘normal’ situation. No more military commissions unless something catastrophic happens.”
Devereux turned from watching Hope dance with the British ambassador. He looked at Lincoln’s group again. “What about spies?” He had been distracted for the moment by the elegance of the scene and his desire to remember the names of Hope’s dance partners. My God! Did I say that? He instinctively turned toward Baker his old nemesis.
“What? Did you say spies?” Davenport said. He looked startled. “You aren’t still worried about accusations like that? Baker over there has lost interest in you long ago.”
Down the Sky: Volume Three of the “Strike The Tent” Trilogy Page 20
