Shattered Nation

by Jeffrey Brooks

  McFadden nodded toward Annie and the wagon. “Mr. Turnbow of Atlanta has sent us a wagon of provisions, sir.”

  Collett took a hard look at the wagon. The cow trailing behind it, along with the chickens and vegetables inside, was probably more food than the 7th Texas had seen in a month.

  “Dear God!” Collett said instinctively. “What possessed the man to send us all this?”

  “Lieutenant McFadden saved my father’s life, sir,” Annie said. “And mine as well. My father wanted to provide these provisions as a way of saying thank you.”

  “Well, by God, we won’t turn this gift down!” Collett said with a beaming smile. “Like manna from heaven, if you ask me.”

  The major quickly organized a detail of men to unload the wagon. Within a matter of minutes, a makeshift pen had been created for the chickens and the crates of vegetables were piled up next to the pen. Almost immediately, a debate began among the men as to whether they should eat the chickens right away or perhaps keep some on hand to provide fresh eggs. No such dispute took place regarding the cow, however. Before the unloading of the wagon had even been completed, the men had cut the animal’s throat and commenced slaughtering it, delighted at the prospect of fresh beef for dinner.

  “Where did your father get all this?” Collett asked.

  McFadden answered for Annie. “Honestly, sir, perhaps the less we know, the better.”

  “I’ll trust you on that, James. Just promise me that General Granbury or General Cleburne are not going to come down here and arrest me for pilfering.”

  McFadden laughed. “I promise, sir.”

  “So this is the lovely lady you saved from death?” Collett asked, looking at Annie.

  “Yes,” McFadden said simply. “This is Miss Annie Turnbow. Miss Turnbow, may I present Major James Collett, the commander of the 7th Texas Infantry.”

  They exchanged pleasant greetings. As they did so, McFadden noticed Collett giving him playful side glances, as though to express his surprise that Annie was as attractive as she was. He had heard the story of the river rescue from the men who had seen it happen, but had perhaps dismissed tales of Annie’s beauty as the mere exaggerations of men who had not seen many women for a long time.

  “Are you aware, Miss Turnbow, that Lieutenant McFadden here is now a hero?”

  She glanced at him. “A hero?”

  “Indeed,” Collett continued. “He personally captured General George Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland. He is the first soldier in the Confederate Army to have achieved such a distinction. In fact, few soldiers in history have such an honor.”

  “Is that so?” Annie said, looking at McFadden with surprise. “All of Atlanta knows that the traitor Thomas had been taken prisoner, but I had no idea that James himself was the one who captured him! Your letter only said that you had received a promotion to lieutenant.”

  “It did not seem important,” McFadden said.

  “Well, all of Atlanta will soon know McFadden’s name,” Collet said. “All of the Confederacy, by God!”

  “I do earnestly pray to be saved from such a fate,” McFadden said with deep sincerity. “Fame has never been something I desire.”

  “Desire it or not, it is what you shall have,” Collett said.

  “My parents will be very interested to hear this news,” Annie said. “They shall be delighted to know that they have dined with the man who captured the South’s most famous traitor.”

  Despite himself, McFadden could not help but wonder if his newfound status and fame, absurd though he thought it to be, would soften the feelings of Annie’s mother toward him. If he had any intention of pursuing some sort of relationship with Annie, it would obviously be easier if her mother warmed to him.

  “Miss Turnbow, would you do my regiment the honor of having dinner with us?” Collett asked. “Thanks to your father, we shall be enjoying fresh beef for the first time in several months. It would please us greatly to have you as our honored guest.”

  She looked slightly taken aback and glanced toward McFadden as if for reassurance. She then looked back at the slave, who was still sitting on the wagon.

  “My man Jupiter will have to accompany me as a chaperone,” she said. “My father would be upset otherwise.”

  “I see no problem with that,” Collett replied. “Do you, McFadden?”

  “None at all, sir.”

  The next few hours passed like a strange yet pleasant dream. As a sign of their gratitude for the gifts of the Turnbow family, the entire regiment drilled and marched back and forth on a short portion of the road, putting more effort into their steps than they would have even if they had been taking part in a grand review of the army. Annie stood and clapped, a smile on her face, while McFadden stood beside her. While no one ever actually said so, it was immediately obvious that Annie was McFadden’s guest and that other men should not approach her. The slave Jupiter stood behind the pair, saying nothing but having a knowing expression on his face.

  After the impromptu parade was over, with Jupiter still trailing behind, McFadden and Annie decided to take a stroll while the food was being cooked. The heat was still oppressive, but a somewhat overcast sky helped make it more tolerable.

  “Why did you not tell me in your letter that it was you who captured Thomas?” she said after a few minutes of idle chit-chat.

  “I thought it would seem arrogant, as though I were trying to impress you.”

  “Your parents raised you to be humble, did they?” she asked with a smile.

  “Oh, they were Scottish. Hard work, dignity, self-education and not much else. Bragging was alien to their character.”

  “And to yours,” she said. Without saying a word, she slipped her arm into his. This took him by surprise, but his heart gave a happy leap.

  “I am surprised that your parents permitted you to come up to see the troops,” McFadden said.

  “My mother was opposed, but my father wanted me to go. He is intent on making sure that I grow into a capable woman who can take care of herself. He says that women will not be coddled by their men folk in the future, now that the war has come and changed everything.”

  “He may be right.”

  “I bought all of this food at Ponder’s shop on my own, I drove it all up here on my own, and I’ll probably be doing it again. My mother may think me a weak and feeble child, but I’m not.”

  “On your own?” McFadden asked. He glanced behind him quickly. “Wasn’t Jupiter with you?”

  Annie looked confused. “Of course. But he’s only a slave.” She saw McFadden’s uneasy look. “Oh, I’m sorry. I have not offended you, have I?”

  “How’s that?”

  “I don’t share all of my mother’s views. On the slavery question, I lean more toward my father. But I cannot deny that one can often hear my mother speaking when I open my mouth.”

  “What are your father’s views on the subject?” McFadden, asked, curious.

  “He is not inherently opposed to slavery, but he does see each slave as an individual. His iron foundry is run with slave labor. But my father insists on paying the slaves for their labor. Not much, of course. Certainly far less than a white man would demand. But some of the slaves have earned enough to purchase their freedom from their owners. My father likes it this way, as it gives the slaves a greater incentive to work.”

  McFadden found this fascinating. He had never heard of any other Southern man doing such a thing. He remembered the strident anti-slavery talk he had heard from his mother while growing up and wondered what she would have thought of Mr. Turnbow’s strange policy.

  He did not think for a moment that Turnbow had adopted such a policy out of the goodness of his heart. He obviously employed the slaves for the very simple reason that they cost less to employ than white workers. But a deep moral good was still being accomplished. Would that be enough to save Robert Turnbow from the fires on Judgment Day? McFadden had no answer to that question, which he thought might well have been
applied to most of the people in the Confederacy, himself included.

  “May I ask you a question, James?”

  “Of course.”

  “At dinner the other night, when my father asked you to say the blessing, it looked as though you could not do it. Why could you not?”

  He took a deep breath. “It’s been a long time since I spoke to God, Annie.”

  “How long?”

  “More than two years now.”

  “Why?”

  He took a deep breath. “I know you understand loss. You lost your brother at Seven Pines?”

  “I did, yes. Did you lose someone in the war as well?”

  He paused a moment. “I lost everyone.”

  “Everyone?”

  “My brother was killed during the New Mexico campaign. I saw it happen.”

  “My God.”

  He nodded. “We were taken prisoner by an insane Yankee captain and his outfit. Really a criminal and his posse, I think. His men called him Cheeky Joe, because he had a big scar across his cheek. He was crazy, I’m sure. Like a minion of Satan let loose onto the Earth.”

  She said nothing but looked at him, her eyes wide.

  “They decapitated my brother fifty feet away from me. I was bound with rope. There was nothing I could do.”

  “How did you get away?” she asked, breathless.

  “They shot me and left me for dead. When I woke up, all that was left was my brother’s headless body. I think they took his head as a trophy.”

  She shuddered at the thought. McFadden wondered if perhaps he had said too much, for such a subject was not proper for conversations with a lady. He had never told anyone the details of what had happened to him out on the New Mexico desert that dark day more than two years before. Somehow, he felt able to tell her these things that he had kept locked up for so long.

  He went on. “I scarcely remember how I got back. I spent several days wandering in the desert, wounded and with no food or water. The sun baked me nearly to death. Maybe I even wanted to die. I collapsed several times, but kept waking up and kept going. Finally, after waking up yet again, I discovered that I had been thrown over the back of a mule. A retreating Confederate unit had found me and taken me with them.”

  “Thank God for those men,” Annie said.

  McFadden nodded. “Yes. Were it not for them, I would be dead.”

  She stopped walking and turned to him, looking him deeply in the eyes. “We have both lost a brother, James. There are no words to express the immensity of our loss. But that should not turn you away from God.”

  He shook his head. “I have not told you all.”

  “No?”

  “No.” He motioned for them to resume walking. Somehow it made it easier for him to talk. “Because of the war, the federal troops that had patrolled the Texas frontier had been withdrawn, and neither the Confederate government nor the Texas state government had deployed any troops of their own. The Comanche Indians took advantage of the situation and launched a series of raids. One of these raids targeted my family’s farm.”

  “God help you,” she said as though from reflex. Yet she continued to listen intently.

  “When I returned home, the farm was a burned out shell. It could only have happened a day or so earlier, because some of the wood was still smoldering. I found the bodies of my father, my mother, and my two sisters. All of them had been pierced by arrows several times.”

  “God help you,” she said again. “I had no idea.”

  “How could you? You’ve only just met me.”

  “Yes, but I could tell as soon as we met that your heart is filled with fire. Now I know why.”

  He said nothing in response, mulling this over. He wondered exactly what she meant by describing him as being full of fire and worried that she might perhaps be afraid of him. However, she seemed content to be walking along beside him.

  “I understand, though, James,” she said softly. “I really do. My heart is full of fire, too.”

  Their walk had taken them in an arching circle and now they found themselves approaching the campground of the 7th Texas once again. The men were roasting juicy pieces of beef over several campfires, while pots boiled happily with potatoes and other delicious ingredients inside them. When the men saw McFadden and Annie approach, they cheered and waved happily.

  The next two hours were the most enjoyable McFadden had experienced in years. Annie ate dinner with the men of the regiment, who told her stories of their heroics during the Battle of Peachtree Creek and various other yarns from their time in the service. McFadden suspected that she saw right through their tall tales but still enjoyed the experience.

  Private Montgomery produced his fiddle and the men happily danced around the campfire while Annie and everyone else clapped in rhythm. They sang songs, starting with The Bonnie Blue Flag, moving on to Captain and His Whiskers and then Dixie. Being men of the Lone Star State, however, they ended with The Yellow Rose of Texas. It was a happy time at the camp of the 7th Texas.

  McFadden stood next to Annie, who was sitting on an empty ammunition crate. He was somewhat surprised to realize that he was smiling and clapping along with the rest of the men. It had been a long time since he had allowed himself to have fun.

  He glanced over at Jupiter, who had gone back to the wagon and was waiting patiently. The slave was listening to the music, but his face was expressionless. McFadden wondered what was going through Jupiter’s mind as he watched the frolics of soldiers fighting for a cause that, were it to succeed, would mean that he would remain trapped in a condition of perpetual servitude.

  McFadden picked up half of a cooked potato and strolled over to the wagon. He held it up for Jupiter to take.

  “Hungry?”

  “Much obliged, sir,” Jupiter said, taking the potato.

  “Thank you for bringing Annie out here, Jupiter.”

  “You’re welcome, sir.” He paused a moment before continuing. “She’s a special girl, Annie.”

  “Yes, she is.”

  “Mr. Turnbow, sir. He likes you, sir.”

  “Does he?” McFadden said, surprised.

  “Yes, he does. I heard him say, sir.”

  “And you, Jupiter? Do you like me?”

  The black man looked down on him with a bemused look on his face. “I think you’re an odd one, Mr. McFadden. I like you just fine, but you sure are an odd one.”

  McFadden smiled, then turned and walked back toward the group around the campfire. Annie was standing, waiting for him.

  “I should go,” she said softly.

  “Yes. Your mother will be worried.”

  “I don’t much mind that,” she replied playfully. “But it is getting late. We will need to head home before it gets too dark.”

  “Be careful on the streets of the city.”

  “Jupiter has a gun. I’m not concerned. And if the provost marshals harass me, all I need to do is mention my father’s name.”

  McFadden smiled. “Well, I am very sorry to see you go. The last few hours have been most pleasant.”

  “Yes, they have.” She leaned forward and lightly embraced him. Pulling back, she said, “Thank you again for saving my life.”

  “Thank you for bringing such delight to me and my men.”

  “I shall visit again. In the meantime, I look forward to your next letter.”

  He watched her go as she clambered aboard the wagon. Jupiter whipped the horses into a walk. The men of the regiment stood and waved as one as she vanished down the road, calling out their thanks for the food. But as she disappeared, her eyes were only on McFadden.

  *****

  July 26, Morning

  Reading the reports coming in from every source of information he possessed, Johnston still could not decide whether Sherman intended to withdraw completely to the north side of the Chattahoochee or attempt to maintain a bridgehead on the south bank. Until the intentions of his enemy became clear, Johnston was unsure exactly which course of action to
pursue. All he could do was watch and wait.

  Mackall entered the room. “Sir? General Wheeler is here to see you, as you requested.”

  “Good. Send him in.”

  Wheeler entered and saluted, a questioning look on his face.

  “Sit down, General Wheeler. I have something very important to discuss with you.”

  Wheeler nodded nervously and took the seat. Johnston looked at him carefully. The cavalry general had treacherously sought to undermine him during the most critical days of the campaign. Such a betrayal was impossible to forgive. Had he had complete freedom of action, Johnston would simply have removed Wheeler from command and thought nothing more of the man.

  But it wasn’t that simple, for Wheeler still had the backing of President Davis and General Bragg. Although any danger that the authorities in Richmond would remove him from command had vanished with the triumph of Peachtree Creek, Johnston knew he still had to tread carefully. Still, by playing his cards correctly, Johnston was convinced he could simultaneously remove an impediment to his command of the army while ensuring that General Forrest would finally be unleashed against Sherman’s supply lines in Tennessee.

  “I recall that, on a few occasions during the retreat from Dalton to the Chattahoochee, you requested permission to take a force of picked cavalry in order to launch a raid on Sherman’s supply lines.”

  Wheeler nodded. “Yes, I did. But you were of the opinion that my troopers were needed with this army in order to guard its flanks and scout the positions of the enemy.”

  “Indeed, and I was correct at that time. But the situation has obviously changed. Peachtree Creek has so severely damaged the enemy that his movements are not as free and wide as they were before, thus making the job of tracking him considerably more easy. Do you agree?”

  “Yes, I agree.”

  “That being the case, I should like to reconsider your request. Do you think you could take a force of four thousand cavalrymen around the Union army, return to north Georgia, and cut the railroad bringing the Yankee supplies down from Chattanooga?”

  Wheeler’s eyes widened. He licked his lips as though he were anticipating a delicious meal. “Well, I would not have previously suggested the mission, General Johnston, if I hadn’t been confident I could accomplish it. So, yes. I am confident I can do it.”