Читать книгу Confederate Money - Paul Varnes - Страница 9

As I said, Henry didn’t wake up for three days. When he finally did, he was in a feather bed. No surprise if you know Henry, there was a woman fanning him and patting his head with a wet rag. The woman, Miss Daisy, was one of the old ones. I thought she was at least fifty the way he described her the first time. Actually, she’s a handsome woman, and was only forty. As it turned out, Miss Daisy was the doctor’s old maid sister. That was fortunate because otherwise some folks wouldn’t have thought it proper for her to care for Henry alone at home, even though he was only seventeen at the time.

She spoke when he had barely cracked his eyes. “Now aren’t you the feisty one lying there with your eyes wide open. I’ve been patting and fanning you for three days and nights, and had just about given up on you. You just lie right there. I’m going to get some chicken soup and I’ll be back. A big boy like you could starve to death in three days.”

Henry didn’t say anything, but he managed to get a cup of chicken soup down before sleeping for another day.

The second time he woke up they were changing the bandage on his head and shoulder. He had caught one minié ball in his left shoulder and another had permanently parted the hair across the top of his head. He was coherent enough to ask questions that time.

“Pa? What about Pa?”

“I’m sorry,” Miss Daisy said. “Somebody recognized your step-pa so we sent for your mother. I’ve known your mother for some time, and you back when you were small. I expect she’ll be here on the next train. We have your pa’s stuff in the closet, except for his clothes. We buried him in those.”

“But who shot us? What happened?” Henry asked.

“Oh, that’s right, you don’t know,” Miss Daisy said, like she hadn’t known he was unconscious all the time. “The Yankees raided here to destroy the salt works.”

Henry’s ma arrived the day after he became fully alert. The two of them stayed with Miss Daisy for the next several days while he got back on his feet.

There was considerable talk going on about the Yankee raid during those days. From what Henry told me he must have talked more than I heard him talk in the first three months I knew him. Henry’s a thinker. He usually doesn’t talk much until he’s figured something out, except where books are concerned. He’ll discuss a book at the drop of a hat, and all day.

What Henry learned from all that talk was that on October 4, a party of thirty Federal sailors came ashore in longboats to destroy the Cedar Key salt-producing operation. Though landing unopposed, they were soon routed by a group of twenty citizens with rifles. The Federal sailors retreated to their ship, which was part of the Federal blockade of Florida. That blockade was in place off the coast of all the Southern states for the entire war.

On October 6, over a hundred Federal sailors returned in four longboats. Finding the salt-producing operation under a white flag, they destroyed the tubs and all the equipment. By destroying the salt works, the Union deprived the Confederacy of a major part of its ability to preserve meat that fed its soldiers and citizens.

The sailors then began burning houses on the key. They also harassed those citizens who hadn’t fled before they returned to their ships. The raiders piled brush against the doctor’s house and lighted it but Miss Daisy put it out. She scolded them until they left without burning Doctor Isaac’s house, saving Henry, who was unconscious inside.

Miss Daisy told Henry that the commanding lieutenant of the raid was from the Federal ship, Tahomas. From others, who had overheard various conversations, Henry soon learned the names of several sailors in the raiding party, including their commanding lieutenant’s name. Someone also said the Tahomas was being moved to blockade duty at Pensacola, Florida, for the next few weeks.

By October 19, Henry had quit having dizzy spells from the minié ball crease on his head, and his left arm had just about quit hurting. He couldn’t use the arm very well but the movement was improving. All of his talking and gathering information had been for a purpose. At dinner that night he told Miss Daisy, the doctor, and his ma what it was.

“I’m taking Pa’s rifle and mule and going after those Yankees who killed him. I’ll be leaving on the train for Archer tomorrow. From there, I’ll go to Pensacola and see if the Tahomas is there. I can’t be sure which ones shot pa and me but I expect to get revenge on someone. Ma, I think you ought to go visit Aunt May for a couple of months. I’m not sure how long this will take.”

Everyone stared at him, speechless, until the doctor said, “Henry, you shouldn’t join the army. You’ve shown that you’re one of the best at reading and math that I’ve ever met. You need to keep developing your mind.”

Henry’s ma broke in. “We don’t have anything to do with that war. You can’t just run off and get mixed up in it. You just can’t go.”

Henry said, “Ma, I’m going tomorrow. I’ve got enough money to get a ticket to Archer. I’m sorry to have to leave you, but I know you can take care of yourself. You’ve done it for more years than I’ve been around. There’s no point in talking about me not going.”

At that point in the conversation Miss Daisy got her voice back and said, “You’re still hurt. Besides, you ought to stay here with us. Doctor Isaac and I have talked. You could study medicine with him.”

Doctor Isaac added, “The medical colleges in the South have all been closed because of the war, but you can still study with me to become a physician. That’s how it was done in the past. I mostly learned that way.”

Henry said, “I’m not going to join the army. I’m going to take revenge for Pa and some for me, an eye for an eye. You can’t possibly know how proud I am of the offer to study to be a doctor. If the offer’s still open after this is taken care of, I’ll jump right on it. I love you all, but I have to do this. It would be good if you could make suggestions that would help me on the way.”

Telling those women he loved them, Henry had just gained their support. But then he always did have a knack for getting along with women. They couldn’t do enough after that and set in to telling him all the things he needed to carry with him, mostly food.

Doctor Isaac went to his room and came out with an almost new rifle, a powder horn, a single shot dueling pistol, and a possibles bag containing all the supplies for the rifle and pistol. The rifle was a percussion cap, .45 caliber Thompson Hawken. The pistol was a .44 caliber, which allowed the same size ball to be used in both. A larger caliber ball is used in a pistol to force it in the grooves and increase accuracy.

Handing them to Henry, he said, “I’d like you to take these.”

They spent most of the rest of the evening talking about Henry’s departure. The women tried a couple of times to talk him out of going but he politely put them off. While they planned, Doctor Isaac left for a short time and returned with a map of Florida. He and Henry spent most of an hour tracing it. With all the talk that was going on, Henry didn’t get to sleep until midnight.

Henry’s ma got him up at daylight, even though the train wouldn’t leave until 3:00 P.M. After talking all morning, they followed Henry to the train.

At the station Doctor Isaac produced a ten-dollar gold piece. Holding it out to Henry, he said, “Here, you’ll need some things along the way.”

“No, sir,” Henry said. “What with your rifle and my mule, I’ll make out. I appreciate the offer though.”

If he could have found a job, it would have taken Henry four months to save ten dollars in gold. Workers at the salt works, before it was wrecked, made a dollar a day in Confederate paper money. At the time, a Confederate dollar was worth ninety cents in gold or silver. Those were the highest paying jobs around. Farm laborers earned only twenty-five cents a day. Though the doctor insisted, Henry wouldn’t take the money.

When the time came to pay for the train, Henry reached in his pocket for the fare. He only had two twenty-five cent pieces, but his hand came out of his pocket with them and a ten-dollar gold piece. There wasn’t but one way it could have gotten in his pocket—Miss Daisy had just been hugging him. Miss Daisy was looking so proud of herself that Henry put the ten dollars back in his pocket, took her in his arms, and kissed her. His ma told us later that it was the talk of Cedar Key for the next few days.

Anyway, Henry got on the train with his baggage, which consisted of one large bag of fried chicken and biscuits, and his sleeping roll. Of course he had the rifle, pistol, and possibles bag. He also had a parting gift from Doctor Isaac, a book of readings for the medical profession.

Six stops, four hours, and thirty-two miles later, Henry arrived in Archer. From there he set out on foot for home, which was several miles north of Archer. One mile north of Archer, while skirting a plantation to avoid disturbing the dogs, he got the fright of his life when a voice spoke from the darkness.

“That you Henry?”

Recognizing the voice instantly, his goose bumps started settling back in his body and Henry said, “Jesus, Jacob, you almost scared me to death. I didn’t see you standing there in the dark.”

“That’s one of the few advantages of being black,” Jacob said.

Henry and Jacob, a young slave living on the plantation, had become fast friends after Henry’s family settled their little place nearby. They frequently hunted and fished together, especially at night or in the winter when their duties were less demanding.

They sat for the better part of an hour while Henry told Jacob what had happened and what he was going to do. Jacob told Henry he would go with him except that he would only get caught and returned, and certainly punished. Wishing each other well, they both went their separate ways. Henry soon arrived home.

The next morning Henry propped open the chicken coop, gathered the eggs, and placed the eggs in a bag to carry with him. After placing a couple of armloads of wood by the fireplace, he put a note on the door telling that the farm wasn’t abandoned, but that travelers could take shelter and food if need be. When he left, his mule’s burden included weapons, three books, food, cooking utensils, two live hens, twenty eggs, a bed roll and canvas, a water jug, a change of clothes, and forty pounds of shelled corn for the mule and chickens. Smokey, the mule, being heavily laden, Henry planned to walk most of the 350 miles to Pensacola.

Getting a late start the day he left, Henry was mid-afternoon the second day getting to the Suwannee River. Having crossed the Santa Fe River between the points where the Ichetucknee River joins it and it joins the Suwannee, he was southwest of a town called Branford. Though still wide and deep, north of the junction of the Santa Fe and the Suwannee rivers, the Suwannee runs shallower and narrower when it’s in its banks, as it was then.

Henry was standing and planning the river crossing when someone hidden behind an oak tree said, “Boy, you stand real still and you’ll live a few more minutes.”

The only thing that moved was Henry’s head and eyeballs. When they moved he was staring into the small end of a twelve-gauge shotgun. The shotgun’s owner was a heavyset man with long hair and a black beard.

Two other armed men approached and took Henry’s weapons and mule. One was a thin, hawk-faced man with broken and missing teeth. The other was a short, nervous redhead who talked constantly.

“Man, look at all the stuff he’s got. What we’uns gonna do with him? I’ll bet they’s twenty eggs in this here sack. He’s got food fur uh army. He’s a bigun, ain’t he? Can I shoot ’im, Bud? Can I?” Red said.

“Hush,” Bud replied. He then said to Henry, “Get your clothes off, boy. Quick now.”

After sitting down and taking off his shoes, Henry stood up and took off his shirt. He wasn’t moving slow or fast, just kind of medium, giving his mind time to work. Though it was obvious they meant to kill him, or worse, they apparently didn’t want to mess up his clothes.

Bud was watching Henry intensely, as was the hawk-faced man. Both were holding their guns on him. Bud had a shotgun, of course, and Hawkface had a rifle. Red was inspecting the mule pack and not pointing his gun at Henry. At the same time he was talking constantly.

Taking the best chance he had, Henry straightened up from pulling his pants legs over his feet and swung them up into the barrel of Bud’s shotgun. In the same motion he stepped and dove for the river, which was three feet away after his step. He figured that, while he was moving, Hawkface would have a harder time shooting him with a rifle than Bud would with the shotgun. Bud jerked, causing his gun to go off, which in turn caused the mule to jump. Because of the mule jumping, neither Hawkface nor Red got off a shot.

Though shallower, the Suwannee River is still dark and deep at that point, so once he hit the water Henry had a chance. Swimming under water, he turned downriver and angled for the other bank. The river is over a hundred yards across there, even when it’s in its banks. Henry came up a forth of the way across the river. The river had washed him downstream so he was fifty yards away from Bud’s group. They shot at him almost every time he came up for a breath. Having only single shot, muzzle-loading weapons, they couldn’t get off shots every time. When he surfaced for the fifth time, he was at the other bank of the river. Though by then they’d moved downstream, Bud’s group was well over a hundred yards from Henry.

At least that’s the way Henry told it to me.