Authors: Ginny Dye
“All right,” Rose muttered. “But you’d better eat fast.” Quickly she led the way into the dining room.
Moses finally looked up from his third bowl of chowder and fourth slice of bread. “Thank you. That was delicious.” He patted his stomach and pushed back in his chair. “I went to see Mr. Walker today, Aunt Abby.”
Aunt Abby looked at him in surprise. “My friend, Albert Walker?”
“Remember telling me about how he had connections with the government?”
“Why, of course. He’s quite an important man.” Aunt Abby looked at him more closely. “What prompted the visit today?”
Rose watched Moses carefully. She knew the determined light in his eyes. It meant he was preparing to do something important.
Moses shrugged. “I’ve been hearing things. We got done with the trash route early today so the boss let us go. I was walking home when I looked up and saw his name on a placard.”
“Yes,” Aunt Abby said. “He has had his law office on Fifth Street for years. His efforts on behalf of the Anti-Slavery Society have been invaluable.”
“He’s a fine man,” Moses agreed.
Rose couldn’t stand it any longer. “What kind of things have you been hearing? What happened when you saw Mr. Walker?” Moses turned and looked at her, a tender light in his eyes. For some reason, that light made her more nervous. She struggled to push down the uneasiness rising in her. She had no basis for it.
Moses must have sensed her struggle because he launched right into his story. “I’ve been hearing rumors about the Union army.”
Aunt Abby regarded him quizzically, “Excuse me for how this might sound, but how in the world do you hear rumors about the Union army in your work as a trash man?”
Rose laughed. She had wondered the same thing herself.
Moses laughed along with them. “You would be amazed the things men will say when they’re standing around on the street corner. Since my trash route runs through the heart of the business district, I hear a great many important men talking. I believe they must think all blacks to be either deaf, or just stupid, for they continue with their talking just as if we weren’t there. I have found myself moving very slowly at times while I listened to their conversations,” he finished with a grin.
Rose just nodded. She knew what he meant. Aunt Abby looked chagrined.
“Anyway,” Moses continued, “like I said, I’ve heard rumors. General McClellan is building up a huge army outside of Washington.”
Aunt Abby nodded. “He took over as commander of the Army of the Potomac in July. They made him commander-in-chief of all the Union forces in November.”
Moses nodded. “He hasn’t done much with his troops in all this time, other than continue to build his army bigger and stronger. There is a lot of pressure on him to do something.”
Aunt Abby nodded again. “There have been some rather nasty rumors about the man himself. Evidently McClellan was the protégé of Jefferson Davis when he was in the peacetime army. That would be enough to make people look at him suspiciously. Then I heard that he had ties to the filibusters.”
“The filibusters?” Rose echoed. “What is that?”
“The filibusters were private armies in the fifties that menaced Central and South America and sought the expansion of slavery.” Aunt Abby paused and then continued. “Many of my friends in the Anti-Slavery Society are concerned as well. When McClellan took charge of the Army of the Potomac
, he told them he would not fight either for the Republican Party or for the abolition of slavery, but only for the restoration of the Union. It has deeply concerned many of my friends.”
“I think, from what I hear, that all the rumors are putting pressure on McClellan to do something,” Moses commented. “We’re closing in on the last week of January. He will have to take some kind of action soon.”
Aunt Abby frowned. “I thought he had taken ill with typhoid fever at the beginning of the year.”
Moses nodded. “I heard today that he was almost fully recovered.”
Rose listened impatiently to all the talk surrounding her. Finally she spoke up. “What do rumors about McClellan have to do with that look in your eyes?” She made no effort to hide her impatience.
Moses turned to her immediately. “I’m sorry, Rose. I am going somewhere with all this.”
“I certainly hope so,” Rose tried to battle the mounting fear inside her.
“I heard some men talking today about McClellan’s supposed plans. What they know of them, anyway. The general is pretty closed-mouth about his campaigns. From what I heard, though, he is going to try and approach Richmond from the mouth of the Rappahannock River at Urbanna.”
Rose looked at him in surprise. “Why that’s less than twenty miles from the plantation.”
Moses nodded. “I know. Landing his forces there would put Union forces less than fifty miles from Richmond.” His eyes flashed brightly before he continued. “When I heard that, I decided it was time to pay a visit to Mr. Walker.”
“Because you want to be a part of it,” Rose said flatly.
Moses nodded and turned to her, his eyes pleading. “You’ve known all along that I want to help the Union win this war.”
“What did you discover today?” she asked quietly.
“Mr. Walker greeted me most graciously when I arrived at his office, especially when I told him who I was living with.” He turned to smile at Aunt Abby. “He thinks very highly of you.”
Aunt Abby smiled and inclined her head. “He’s a very gracious man.”
Moses continued on. “He became more interested when I told him I had lived in that general area of Virginia for the last two years and that I was quite adept at making my way around there.”
“I thought the Union was still adamant about not using blacks in the military,” Aunt Abby interrupted.
Moses shrugged. “They are. But I convinced Mr. Walker, at least, that they need someone with them who knows the area well. Just in the few minutes we talked, I cleared up one misconception for him. I’m not sure of his connection with all this, but somewhere he had gotten the idea that the roads through there were sandy and well-drained.”
Rose chuckled.
“Exactly,” Moses grinned. “I assured him his information was wrong and used it as yet another point of how I could make myself useful.”
Rose stared at him. “You volunteered your services as a spy?”
Moses nodded. “I don’t know yet if they will be accepted, but Mr. Walker is going to put in a good word for me. He seems to carry some influence.”
Aunt Abby nodded. “Albert Walker is a very powerful man in this city. He is well known in Washington as well. He was influential in getting Lincoln elected. He most definitely carries influence.”
Moses listened carefully, his eyes glowing brighter. “He told me he would stay in touch.”
“Do you really think the army will let a black man act as a spy?” Rose asked.
Moses shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know that before this war is over, thousands of black men will play a part in winning the victory.”
Aunt Abby looked at him closely. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
Moses nodded firmly. “Not only are there free black men willing to lay their lives on the line - there are thousands of former slaves willing to do anything to see slavery abolished. Rightly or wrongly, we believe this war - if we win it - will be the end to slavery.”
“Lincoln has made no statement to that effect,” Aunt Abby said in a troubled voice.
Moses shrugged again. “Let’s just say it’s something all of us feel in our bones. That’s good enough for us.”
Rose watched him. He already knew she agreed with him. “How long would you be gone,” she asked quietly.
Moses shook his head and laughed. “I have no idea! I don’t even know if I’m going anywhere. Mr. Walker told me to keep on collecting trash and learning from you. Any notification I may get could come at the last moment.” He paused. “Only time will tell.”
Rose nodded, trying to calm her insides. She had known all along that Moses wanted to help the Union. But knowing something and dealing with it were two different things. She and Moses had not been apart even one day since he had arrived on the plantation. She couldn’t help the tears that sprang to her eyes.
Aunt Abby reached forward to put her hand on top of hers. Rose looked up into her caring eyes. “Great causes require great sacrifices, Rose. They always have, and they always will.” Her own eyes filled with tears.
Rose knew she was thinking of Matthew Justin.
“Moses is still with us for now,” she continued. “If duty takes him away, we will continue to take one day at a time. At least we will have each other for comfort and encouragement.”
Rose nodded. She knew she shouldn’t let her fear overwhelm her. Suddenly, in her mind, she was back on the boat in the middle of the Potomac River as Moses battled the wind and rain. The lesson she had learned came back to her.
She would no longer ask what they were going to do next, or whether they would make it or not. God had brought them this far.
She smiled now and leaned forward to take Moses’ hand. “I believe in you, Moses. If there is something you can do to help make a difference, I’ll support you all the way.”
Moses lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently, his eyes expressing his love and gratitude. “Thank you,” he said softly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Robert emerged from his tent and walked over to the fire. Jackson’s troops had arrived at Unger’s Store the night before, after two days of brutal traveling. His men’s voices floated out to him.
“I think Jackson is crazy!”
“Those crazy stories we heard about him at the Virginia Military Institute must have been true,” another announced bitterly.
“Yeah. Who but a crazy man would have troops out in weather like this?” another interrupted.
“I think he must really be a Yankee. That’s why he’s trying to kill all of us!” a fresh-faced boy added.
“I don’t ever want to hear anyone call General Jackson a Yankee again!” Robert snapped as he emerged from the shadows and stepped up to the fire. He stared around at the men coldly. All of the men looked up quickly when his voice cracked above them, and then they stared fixedly at the ground. Robert could feel the tension in the air. He understood how much the men had suffered. He himself had never been so miserable before. But this kind of talk was mutinous. None of them would make it out of this campaign alive if they didn’t stand together.
“Come on, Lieutenant,” one of the men finally said, looking up defiantly. “Don’t you honestly think it’s crazy to have us out in the dead of winter?”
Robert shrugged and kept his voice cold. Now was not the time to show sympathy. “I think if anyone of you wants to be a general, you should think about paying the price it takes to become one.” He stared around at the men again. “Did General Jackson not accomplish his objective at Bath? Did he not break Northern communications - in spite of the bad weather we faced on the march there?” He stared fixedly at the men until the prolonged silence made them look up. They nodded reluctantly.
Robert’s voice and face softened somewhat. “I know it’s like hell out here, men, but regaining control of northwestern Virginia is critically important. We have to be willing to campaign and advance when Yankee troops are all holed up for the winter. We have to take what we can, when we can. You men are accomplishing something the Northern troops have not even
attempted
.”
Slowly, the defeated looks on the men’s faces began to fade. The bitterness was slowly replaced by a look of pride in their accomplishments.
Robert pushed on. “Romney is waiting for us. It may be hell to get there, but get there we will! We made it this far when we thought it was impossible. We can make it there, too.” Then he turned and walked away, leaving the men to talk it out on their own. He had done all he could do.
He was staring down at the frozen stream minutes later when a voice sounded at his shoulder.
“Lieutenant?”
Robert turned. “Yes, Hobbs?”
“Thank you for what you said back there. I guess we kinda lost sight of things for a while.”
“It happens to everyone, Hobbs.”
Hobbs hesitated. “I wish you could talk to the rest of the troops.”
There was a troubled tone in his voice that caused Robert to go on alert. He looked at Hobbs sharply. “Why?”
Hobbs was quiet for a moment, and then he looked up with troubled eyes. “The troops are angry, sir. They really don’t understand why they are being made to endure such torture. And they’re sick. Too many of them can’t even walk anymore. I saw two yesterday. They were barefoot.”
“Barefoot!” Robert exclaimed, astonished.