Encounter at Cold Harbor

  
1. Jeff Makes a Decision

  
2. Tom Makes a Decision

  
3. Back in Richmond

  
4. Lady with a Temper

  
5. Wanted: One Mother

  
6. Boys Are Pretty Silly

  
7. Jeff Is Displeased

  
8. At the Ball

  
9. Smoke in the Wilderness

10. A Casualty

11. “Go Get Eileen”

12. The Battle of the Crater

13. Jeff Changes His Mind

14. A Woman of Strength

15. Birthday Party

A
pale yellow sun looked down on the streets of Richmond as Jeff Majors made his way along the line of shops. From time to time he saw his reflection in a plate glass window. What he saw was a tall young man wearing an ash-gray uniform with a shock of black hair coming out from beneath his cap. At seventeen he looked older. He already had shoulders broader than most of the men in his company, and there was a sureness about his movements.

After passing several shops, he turned into one and greeted the short, fat storekeeper with a quick nod.

“Howdy, Mr. Bennett!”

“Why, hello, Jeff!” Mr. Bennett was quick to wait on him, for there was only one other customer in the store, a man with one arm missing, who stood looking sadly at the empty shelves that composed most of the store. “What can I do for you today?”

Casting his eyes around the depleted shop, Jeff said, “Not much, it looks like, Mr. Bennett. You’re about out of stock.”

“Well, in that you’re right.” The storekeeper nodded glumly. He dropped his head, stared at the floor, then shrugged his bulky shoulders. “If some of them blockade runners don’t make it through pretty soon, I’m gonna have to close up.”

Jeff was well aware of the shortage of goods in wartime Richmond. Ever since the War Between
the States had started, the Federals had thrown a blockade of naval vessels around the coast of the South. It had grown steadily stronger until now only the boldest captains would risk their vessels, for if they were captured they would lose everything they had.

“I guess it’s pretty tough, but we’ll make it!” Jeff’s eyes continued to run around the shelves as he said, “I need some butter. Looks like you got some of that.”

“Sure have.” Bennett picked up a yellow mound of butter that had been carefully molded. “Woman that keeps cows on the outside of town, she brought this in just this morning. Real fresh.”

“How much?” Jeff asked.

“Well, I’ll have to get fifteen dollars for it.”

Jeff stared at the man.
“Fifteen dollars
for a pound of butter? Why, that’s outlandish!”

Bennett licked his lips, then shrugged. “I know it is, and if Confederate money keeps on losing its value, by this time next week it’ll be thirty dollars. Better stock up while you can, Jeff!”

Taking the shopkeeper at his word, he collected a few supplies. As Mr. Bennett put them in a box, Jeff pulled a thick fold of bank notes from his pocket. Peeling off several, he said, “Used to be you had to bring your money in your pocket and take your groceries off in a box. If things don’t get better, it looks like I’ll have to bring the money in a box and take the groceries home in my pocket.”

Mr. Bennett took the cash and managed a smile. “Won’t be long before we’ll whip the Yankees. Then things will get back to normal again.” He stared at the money dolefully, then put it into a cigar box beneath the counter. “Tell your pa I said hello!”

“I’ll do that, Mr. Bennett!”

Jeff left the store and continued down the street. There was a mournful air about the streets of Richmond that had not been apparent when he and his family had first arrived here from Kentucky. Then, war fever had been at its height. Bands had been playing, and pretty girls had been handing out cookies and glasses of lemonade to farm boys as they flooded into Richmond to fight the Yankees.

As Jeff crossed the dusty street, his mind went back to his old home in Kentucky.
Wish I was back there!
he thought, then shook his shoulders and pushed the thought away. “Can’t be thinking about things like that,” he murmured aloud. Still, thoughts kept coming to him, mostly thoughts about his boyhood when he and Leah Carter had roamed the hills, fishing, hunting, and looking for birds’ eggs. “Sure do miss Leah,” Jeff muttered. Then, when he saw a man looking at him strangely, he grinned and said, “Just talkin’ to myself!” and laughed as the man smiled.

Many of the men on the street hobbled along on crutches, missing a leg. Many had only one arm. Some had patches over one eye, and their faces were scarred. It was a depressing sight, and Jeff had never gotten used to it.

A large black-and-tan hound thumped his tail against the floor of the post office as Jeff stepped toward the door. Leaning over, he patted its head. “Wish me and you could go out and hunt coon, boy.”

The tail thumped again, and Jeff pulled the dog’s long ears.

Inside the post office, he waited his turn, studying the notices posted on the walls. The mail did not
get priority in the Confederacy, and sometimes it took weeks for a letter to get to its destination. However, when Jeff got to the window and said, “Any mail for Nelson Majors or his family?” he was pleased to see the postmaster nod.

“Yep, got one right here! Just come in!” He handed Jeff a letter and twisted his head to one side and winked. “From your sweetheart, I’ll bet!”

Jeff looked at the envelope and saw that it was Leah’s handwriting. “That’s right!” he said. “Prettiest sweetheart in the whole Confederacy!”

As he turned away, the thought came to him that actually Leah was not
in
the Confederacy. Kentucky had not come out to fight for the South. It was for that reason the Majors family had left there to come to Richmond, where Jeff’s mother died shortly after their arrival.

He moved to one side of the walk and leaned against a hardware shop. Across the street, a blacksmith was making a rhythmic clanging as he hammered out a white-hot piece of steel. He heard the hum of voices as people passed and the sound of horses’ hooves as men rode by or drove past in wagons and buggies of every sort.

Jeff opened the letter and eagerly read it:

Jeff looked up as a drover passed with a wagon full of goods. The man yelled and cracked his whip over the heads of the oxen, which were straining to pull the heavy load. Jeff watched for a moment.

Tom and Sarah, Leah’s sister, had planned to get married, but the war had driven them apart. Leah’s brother, Royal, was in the Union Army. Tom had served with his father and Jeff in the Army of Northern Virginia until he lost a leg at Gettysburg.

Jeff looked down and read the rest of the letter, devouring the news of the farm and all the things that were going on back home. Finally he sighed, folded the letter, and stuck it into his inside pocket.

He walked on through town and out to the camp just south of Richmond. The sound of bugles, and men drilling, and the many other noises that go with an army camp came to him, but he was so accustomed to them he hardly noticed.

When he got to where his company was stationed,
he glanced up at the flag that indicated the officers’ headquarters.

The corporal on guard outside the tent winked at him. “Hello, Private Majors! You want to see your pa—I mean Colonel Majors?”

“If he’s not busy.”

“Just go right on in! He said he’s been looking for you.”

Jeff found his father, Col. Nelson Majors, sitting at a portable desk and staring at a map that was laid out before him. Jeff thought again how fine his father looked. He was a dark-skinned man with hazel eyes and a black mustache. At the age of forty-one, he had hair that was still totally black. Looking up, he grinned. “Hello, Jeff. Did you get something to eat?”

“Yes, I did, Pa—I mean Colonel. It cost the world, though!” He put down the box and exhibited his purchases. Then he handed over the remains of the cash and said, “It was the best I could do. The store’s about out of everything.”

Colonel Majors leaned back and took a deep breath. Balancing himself on the back two legs of his camp chair, he put his hands behind his head and stared up at the tent roof. “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “it’s not good—but it’s better than what we’ll get when we take to the field.”

At that moment, a tall, rangy captain walked through the door and saluted.

The colonel returned the salute and said, “Well, Captain Dawes, how do the new recruits look?”

Dawes lounged at ease in front of the desk and shrugged his shoulders. “Not like much, Colonel. I guess all the good ones have already been scooped up. Some of them we got in this bunch are either
too old to do much good or so young I hate to see them coming on.”