Thieves Of Mercy sb-2

by James L. Nelson

  Men moved like shadows around him, men stumbling to quarters, taking the places they would occupy if the General Page went into battle. The moon had set and it was quite dark, but still Bowater could see the shapes hunkered around the ten-pound Parrot rifle in the bow and loading small arms behind the wood and compressed cotton bulwarks.

  He climbed up onto the hurricane deck. The morning was cool and damp and still. He could hear frogs and the call of wading birds, the buzz and chirp of insects around the levee. Lovely. He breathed deep, understood how a person could fall in love with that river.

  Someone appeared at the head of the ladder, climbing up. He saluted. Bowater did not recognize him. “Chief Taylor says steam’s at service gauge, Cap’n,” he said. One of the coal passers. Bowater did not know his name.

  “Very well. Tell Chief Taylor”-Bowater almost said, “Tell Chief Taylor to listen for my bells” but he stopped himself. “Tell Chief Taylor thank you. And Godspeed.”

  “Godspeed,” the coal passer repeated, as if he would have trouble remembering. “Yes, sir.”

  They waited. Bowater, Tarbox, Amos Baxter, the helmsman.

  Doc arrived with coffee and hardtack smeared with something that might be construed as butter, and they ate and drank and waited some more.

  The sky grew lighter, the dark pulled away to reveal the river, the town climbing up the hill, the levee, the ships of the River Defense Fleet, black smoke rolling from their chimneys.

  “Look there,” Tarbox grunted, gesturing upriver. A great cloud of black smoke hung over the trees, a mile and a half away.

  “Hope them damned Yankees done set their damn selves on fire,” Baxter offered, but Bowater knew it would not be that easy. The smoke was the collective output of the ironclad fleet’s furnaces. They were getting up steam. Next stop: Memphis.

  Bowater looked to the flag boat, the Little Rebel, wondered what decisions had been made. It was light enough now that he could see a figure at the base of the forwardmost flagpole. Bowater picked up the signal book just as the string of three flags ran up the pole. Numbers one, two, and four. Bowater ran his finger down the list. Prepare for battle.

  “We stay,” he announced to the wheelhouse. “We stay and fight.”

  One by one the ships of the River Defense Fleet cast off and backed into the stream. The General M. Jeff Thompson, the Sumter, the General Beauregard, the General Joseph Page, the Colonel Lovell, and the Little Rebel. The General Earl Van Dorn, the General Sterling Price and the General Bragg, paddle wheels turning, kicking up the river white, their men hunkered down behind makeshift barricades of railroad iron and compressed cotton and pine planks, or clustered around the odd assortment of guns at bow and stern. The River Defense Fleet, the forlorn hope, steamed into the morning.

  By the time Bowater could turn his concentration from conning the ship, getting her into the line of boats, like knights of old, ready to charge, the sky had gone from gray to the lightest blue.

  He could see people on the waterfront and gathering on the levee, the citizens of Memphis come out to watch the battle for their town, helpless spectators to their own fate.

  Bowater gave the engine room a jingle. Dead slow ahead, enough to stem the current, keep them in place. He could see the Federal gunboats now, moving out into the river, forming a line from one shore to the other, much as the River Defense Fleet had done, a string of iron gunboats sweeping down on them. But it was still quiet, save for the working of the paddle wheels and the walking beam.

  Bowater remembered Sullivan, down below.

  “Mr. Tarbox, I have to go below for a moment. Hold the boat here, watch the Little Rebel for orders, send for me if you need me.”

  “Awright. Where ya gonna be?”

  “I’m going to confer with Captain Sullivan.”

  He rushed forward as fast as he could go and still maintain his dignity, down to the boiler deck and aft to Sullivan’s cabin. He paused at the door and knocked, hoping there would be no answer, but instead he heard Sullivan’s voice, “Come!”

  Bowater opened the door, stepped inside. Sullivan was sitting in his big chair, the one Bowater always pictured him in, the place he sat during their writing sessions. He was dressed in worn denim pants and a river-driver shirt and slouch hat. He had his gun belt with two pistols strapped around his waist. He was pale and sweating profusely, and his breath was labored, as if he had just run a mile or so, though he did not look as if he had the strength to stand.

  “Sullivan, what in hell are you doing out of bed?” Bowater demanded.

  “Doc told me…” Sullivan tried for a smile, but could not quite make it happen. “Said we’re gonna fight them Yankees. Can’t sleep through that.”

  Bowater was suddenly afraid that Sullivan meant to take back command of the ship. What could he say? It was Sullivan’s ship to command. He tried to think of some argument that would not sound purely selfish.

  “Don’t you fret, Cap’n,” Sullivan continued, as if he had read Bowater’s mind. “You’re still in command of this bucket. Hell, I don’t know if I can walk, never mind take charge. But I got to be on deck. You can understand that, can’t you?”

  Bowater nodded.

  “After all,” Sullivan said, “I’m the hardest drivin, hardest drinkin…” He broke off in a fit of coughing.

  “Yes, most dangerous son of a whore riverboat man on the Western Waters,” Bowater supplied.

  From somewhere beyond the cabin, but not so far, a gun fired, a single cannon shot. Sullivan stopped coughing. The two men looked up, looked at nothing, focused their hearing. Another shot, and another. The River Defense Fleet, opening the ball.

  “Come on, Captain Sullivan.” Bowater stepped over to the chair, offered Mississippi Mike a hand. Sullivan took it, and with a grunt, an involuntary sound ripped from his guts, he stood.

  Sullivan draped his right arm over Bowater’s shoulder and put his weight on it, and Bowater braced himself to hold the big man up. Together they stepped from the cabin, from their literary salon, right into the Battle of Memphis.

  THIRTY

  The people in tens of thousands crowded the high bluffs overlooking the river, some of them apparently as gay and cheerful as a bright May morning, and others watching with silent awe the impending struggle.

  COMMANDER HENRY WALKE, USS CARONDELET

  There was going to be a battle. A fight on the river. It was what everyone in Memphis was saying. It loomed like the Second Coming in people’s minds, and it made Wendy Atkins so anxious she could scream.

  Getting upriver from Yazoo City to Memphis had been no easy task. Even with money to pay her passage-and it was running low-it had been a job just finding a boat making the run. Wendy heard various takes on the same theme-Boat to Memphis? Hell, there ain’t no boats no more. Should a seen it before, hell, you could walk to Memphis on the damned boats. Now? With the damn Yankees, an Jeff Davis? You’d have better luck swimmin-until she was ready to tear her hair out.

  But she made it. Through perseverance, monetary disbursement, and shameless flirting she had managed to get upriver to

  Memphis, stepping ashore on the afternoon of June fifth with absolutely no notion of what she would do next, where she would go, how she would find Samuel.

  She secured lodging first-it seemed practical-and then began to ask around. There were two things that she kept hearing. There was no naval presence in Memphis, no naval officers or men. And there was going to be a battle on the river.

  Those two facts seemed to contradict one another. How could there be a battle on the river with no navy? she wondered. Finally she found a haughty assistant provost named van Reid, who explained to her that the Confederate squadron, a thing called the River Defense Fleet, was not under the command of the navy, but under army control, to the extent that it was under any control at all.

  “I see…” Wendy said.

  “And now, it is hardly safe for you to be abroad, ma’am. Might I escort you to your lodging?” the suddenly
solicitous van Reid asked.

  “I think I am safer escorting myself, thank you,” she said curtly and walked off. It was dark. She was very tired. She walked uphill to her hotel.

  She was just stepping through the door of her room when another line of questioning came to her. The Tennessee, she thought. No one in Memphis knew where a naval officer might be found, but surely someone would know where this Tennessee was being built. With a refreshed sense of optimism, she went to bed and slept, deep and dreamlessly.

  She was awake before dawn, dressed, and was out the door. She woke the clerk at the desk, who was asleep on a tall stool and seemed in danger of toppling off.

  “Tennessee? Certainly, ma’am. Tennessee’s building down to Shirley’s yard. Along with the Arkansas, which they towed off. I can get you a carriage, if you want.” He glanced dubiously at the front windows, which looked like black marble with the night sky behind them. “Don’t know if anyone will be there. Besides, there’s supposed to be a battle with the Yankees today.”

  Wendy asked for the carriage. She could not wait another moment. She would rather pace back and forth in a dark, empty shipyard then sit in the hotel lobby, doing nothing.

  The sky was lightening when they left the hotel, though the sun had not risen and the town was still lost in the gloom. Wendy sat in the carriage, swaying back and forth, stomach knotted. The old man driving the coach did not seem in much of a hurry, and Wendy wanted to lean out the window and tell him to get a damned move on, but she held her tongue.

  Finally the carriage came to a stop, nearly tumbling Wendy headfirst. She felt it rock as the driver climbed down, opened the door. “Shirley’s yard, ma’am. Don’t know as anyone’s here.”

  Wendy stepped out into the cool air under the now light blue sky. The air was thick with the odor of charred wood, an acrid smell that reminded her of the Gosport Naval Shipyard, which she had twice seen burned.

  “This is fine, thank you.”

  The carriage rattled away and Wendy stepped over the bare ground into what she guessed was a shipyard. There were makeshift buildings and piles of wood in sawn boards and uncut logs. And in the middle of the yard, a great pile of charred wood, a heap at least one hundred and fifty feet long and ten feet high of black charcoal and white ash. As she approached it, she could feel it was still warm, still smoldering. It could not have been burned very long ago. What was it? she wondered. Could this have been the Tennessee?

  She heard footsteps and her hand reached down for the hem of her skirt, ready to pull it aside, yank the gun from the holster, a move she had practiced in the privacy of her room. She could see a man hurrying toward her, head down, moving fast. A small man, he did not seem to notice her.

  “Excuse me,” she said when she saw he was going to walk right past her.

  “Oh!” The man jumped in surprise. He stopped in his tracks, looked over at her. “Yes? May I help you?”

  “Hello, my name is Wendy Atkins.” She stepped toward the man.

  “Pleased to meet you. I am John Shirley. I am the owner of the yard here.”

  “Honored, sir. Perhaps you can help me. Do you, perchance, know a Lieutenant Samuel Bowater.”

  “Bowater? Certainly I know Lieutenant Bowater. Right behind you, that pile of ash, that was his command. Burned it last night. Before the Yankees got it.” There was more than a little bitterness in his voice.

  “Oh, dear. Will Lieutenant Bowater be here today?”

  “Today? No, I shouldn’t think so. No reason for him to come here now. Besides, there’s going to be a battle, or so they say.”

  So they say, Wendy thought. If there was going to be a battle on the river, she suspected that Samuel would be part of it, army command or no.

  “Bowater was friendly with one of the captains of the River Defense Fleet,” Shirley continued. “Don’t recall his name. Big fella. Had the boat General Joseph Page. I imagine Bowater is probably with him today.”

  “Yes…” Wendy said. Oh, God, this was terrible! She had finally found him, or near enough, and now he would be off to battle, perhaps without even knowing she was there.

  “Do you know where this General Joseph Page is anchored? Or tied up?”

  “The fleet was tied to the levee last night. Not very far from here. I could take you, if you like.”

  “I would like that very much,” Wendy said.

  From somewhere north of them, up the river, hidden by the cluster of waterfront buildings, a gun went off, the loud report of heavy ordnance. Shirley looked up quickly. “Uh-oh,” he said. “Reckon we better hurry.”

  Samuel Bowater made his way down the side deck, bearing half of Mississippi Mike Sullivan’s weight on his shoulders. By the time they reached the ladder to the hurricane deck, the firing had escalated from a single gun here and there to an all-out barrage, a solid noise of gunfire, a murderous cannonade.

  Sullivan seemed to gain strength with each step, putting less and less weight on Bowater’s shoulders, for which Bowater was grateful.

  They came to the forward end of the boiler deck and stopped. The Federal ironclads were opening up all along their line. The ships themselves were beginning to look blurry and indistinct as they were lost from sight behind the wall of their own gun smoke. The gunfire was like the rumble of thunder, and cutting through that low sound came the terrifying whine of shells screaming past.

  “Damn me! This is more like it!” Sullivan said, and though his voice lacked its characteristically excessive vigor, still there was life in it. As love’s first kiss brought Snow White back to life, so the sound of flying metal seemed to revive Mississippi Mike.

  “Can I help you to the hurricane deck?” Bowater asked. “Thank you, Cap’n, I do believe I can get there under my own

  steam. You go on, now.” Bowater nodded, bounded up the ladder and aft to the wheelhouse. Tarbox was working the cheroot in his mouth. “Signal from the flag boat, Cap’n. Montgomery’s sendin Jeff Thompson, Sumter, Beauregard, and Lovell forward, try and draw these bastards off’n the bar. Rest of us is back here. Reserve, like.”

  Bowater nodded. He could see the four bigger steamers advancing on the line of gunboats, firing their bow guns, then steaming into their own clouds of gun smoke. The General Page was half a mile from the ironclads, the four Rebel boats in the advance were half that distance.

  A shell flew by, close, with its terrible banshee scream, and Bowater and Tarbox both turned their heads and watched it hit the water astern. “Reckon we’d be dead meat if them Yankees didn’t have all that smoke in their eyes,” Tarbox observed.

  “Let’s head toward the Arkansas shore,” Bowater called through the open wheelhouse door to Baxter, who was resting on the big wheel, “see if we can get a clean shot at the gunboats.”

  Baxter nodded, turned the wheel. Bowater stepped in and rang two bells. Mississippi Mike appeared over the edge of the hurricane deck. He was pulling himself up the ladder, it seemed hand over hand, red-faced and sweating, and Bowater wondered if this was such a good idea. But he knew Sullivan could not remain in bed, not with his ship going into battle. No captain could, who deserved that title.

  “Cap’n Sullivan…?” Tarbox said. His tone was a mix of pleasure and uncertainty.

  “Tarbox…” Sullivan nodded. “I’m jest a sightseer,” he added. “Cap’n Bowater’s still runnin the monkey show.”

  Tarbox looked from Sullivan to Bowater and back, then nodded.

  The General Page was working her way across the river, and Bowater was looking for a place where they would have an unobstructed shot at the enemy. “There!” he said to Baxter, stepping into the wheelhouse. “Let’s head up right there.”

  Baxter grunted, gave the wheel a small turn. Bowater grabbed a tall stool that was pushed against the aft bulkhead and carried it out to the side deck.

  “Captain Sullivan, a seat for you.”

  Sullivan looked dubiously at the stool, as if it were too nancy for him to sit down, but as it was, he was leaning heav
ily on the rail for support, so he muttered a thanks and sat.

  “Mr. Tarbox, let’s have the bow gun fire when ready. Tell them to keep it up, as long as they can find a target.”

  Tarbox nodded and hurried forward.

  “Aw, hell, Cap’n,” Sullivan said, settling on the stool, breathing hard. “Here you’re bringin all yer fancy navy ways to my boat. ‘Mister’ Tarbox! Shit, now he’s gonna expect me to call him that!”

  “I’m not sure a little discipline-” Bowater’s retort was cut off by the roar of the Parrott rifle, which sent a shudder through the deck and a blast of smoke out over the water. As if in response, a Yankee shell whistled past, taking out the boats on the starboard side in a great starburst of white-painted splinters. Shattered bits of boat flew high over the deck, like a flock of birds in disorderly takeoff, then came clattering down again, leaving only four bent davits standing and the torn ends of the boat falls swaying back and forth.

  “Damn,” Sullivan said.

  Bowater looked forward. The smoke was thicker around the ironclads, the gunfire more furious. This is idiotic, he thought. We can’t do this. It was insane for the River Defense Fleet to remain where they were and swap gunfire with ironclads. They could never win on that ground. And the fleet had already proved that their rams could be effective against the Yankee gunboats. It was time for a cavalry charge.

  He turned to Sullivan. “We can’t stay here. We’ll be murdered.”

  “You sure got that right.”

  “We should ram them, go right at them.”

  “Ram them? Hell, I was gonna say we should skedaddle to Vicksburg.” Sullivan gulped a few deep breaths, winced in pain. “Naw, I’m jest joshin ya. You do whatever you want, Cap’n, an I’m with ya. Ain’t like I got much choice.”