Two Girls of Gettysburg (40 page)

The patrol moved on. I turned to Mama.

“Why are you so calm? That rebel snuck into the house last night and stole the silver and we didn’t even know it!”

“He did not break into the house, Lizzie. I hid the silver in the shed, figuring it would be safer there.”

I heard drumming and the strains of “Yankee Doodle,” and Mama and I hurried to the Diamond, where we could see a band leading a column of blue-clad soldiers into town. A great cheer went up as the Confederate flag was pulled down and the Stars and Stripes hoisted in its place.

It was our Independence Day, the 4th of July.

By now a small crowd had gathered and news of the victory spread. Twelve thousand Confederates had charged down from Seminary Ridge into Meade’s unbreakable line, and almost half of those rebels had fallen. All this had occurred while I was enjoying my reunion with Ben and Amos.

We saw Mrs. Wade in the crowd with a somber-faced Harry. Mama embraced them, and Mrs. Wade said that Ginnie would be buried in the garden for the time being.

When the band stopped playing, Mr. Kendlehart stood up to give a speech. He looked as if he had slept in his clothes. More likely, he hadn’t slept at all. No sooner had he begun speaking than he was interrupted by someone on his council. They held a brief conference.

“Folks,” Mr. Kendlehart said, “I have been advised that it is not wise to be abroad in the streets. The rebels have not withdrawn from Seminary Ridge, and their marksmen are still firing on our soldiers in the west side of town.”

Anxious murmuring ran through the crowd. Someone said the rebels might charge down from Seminary Ridge and try again to take the town. The soldiers who had marched so gaily to the Diamond were
already erecting barricades along Chambersburg Street. A soft drizzle began to fall on the dusty streets, and the sky that had been so clear at daybreak was now a solid mass of gray clouds. People began to hurry home, locking their doors behind them and closing their shutters.

Weary dread filled me at the thought of enduring another day of noise, fear, and uncertainty. I wanted to climb into bed and forget everything. Amos had to forego his plans to fetch Grace and the baby home. Margaret sat forlornly, no doubt thinking of Jack and Clara. And perhaps of Frederick Hartmann. Then the storm broke, and by midafternoon, rain was falling heavily, drumming loudly on the roofs and running in muddy streams down the streets. Thunder and lightning raged in the sky. If there was a battle west of town, we couldn’t hear it.

In spite of the storm, Ben went to check on the butcher shop and Mama took bandages and bread to the hospital at St. James Church. Meanwhile I neatened the cellar and brought up the bedding. Noah Zimmer made sorry jokes every time I went down, and I began to wish we could send him to a hospital somewhere. Ben came back, soaked and dripping, and reported that the livestock pens had all been pulled down to build barricades, but nothing else had been damaged.

I knew I should scrub the kitchen floor, but I was too tired. The front hall, too, was crossed by muddy footprints. Standing on the spot where the soldier had lain, I felt a twinge of superstition and opened a window to allow his spirit to drift out. The drumming rain and the steady ticking of the parlor clock drove me to lie down on the sofa. Tomorrow, we might open the shop. Later Amos could rebuild the pens. But now I would sleep. How pleased Papa would be to come home to a thriving business! I imagined him smiling and lifting me in his arms, swinging me back and forth like a little child.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
In my dream, I was at a party with people shouting and
laughing. Jack and Clara jumped up and down. Someone was shaking me, but I was too heavy and couldn’t move my limbs.

I opened my eyes. Jack was shoving me and telling me to wake up. Margaret knelt on the floor, with Clara clinging to her neck. Amos stood in the hall with his arms around Grace, who was holding her baby. This was no dream. I sat up, feeling like Rip van Winkle.

“How did you all get here? How long have I been asleep?”

“Just a few hours,” said Margaret.

“You won’t believe the surprise we have for you, Cousin Lizzie!” interrupted Jack.

“I don’t believe
this,
” I said. “But how—?”

“Guess how many dead horses we saw along the road?” Jack wrinkled his nose. “But Luke showed me how to breathe into my sleeve, like this.”

“Who? Luke?” I asked, looking around in disbelief. A soldier with long hair and the start of a sandy beard stood in the parlor doorway, his arm around Ben. He was taller than Mama, who stood beside him, smiling in a dazed way.

“How about a proper greeting, Lizzie?” he said, holding open his arms.

“Luke! I’m not still dreaming, am I?” I hugged him, laughing and crying at once. “You look so different. Your shoulders are so big!”

“You’ve grown a heap, too, Lizzie,” he said, looking me up and down. Though he smiled, his eyes looked weary and pained, like they belonged to an older person.

“Where is your bugle? Play it for me,” demanded Ben.

“Sorry, but I swapped it for this rifle, which is a durn sight more useful.”

“But how did you all get here?” I asked, still confused.

Luke replied, “I was carrying a buddy whose leg was all busted up,
and we stopped at this farmhouse because we smelled fresh bread, and there were Jack and Clara on the porch. I said, ‘How’d you all like to go home today?’ So we flagged down an ambulance for my buddy, and Clara and Amos’s wife and baby rode courtesy of the U.S. government, while me and Jack walked.”

“The nice man in the am’blance showed me a picture and said I was just as pretty as his girl!” said Clara.

“But won’t you get in trouble for leaving your regiment?” I asked Luke

He shrugged. “Some of the men got leave to visit their folks in town, and when the rest of us heard, we took off too. I’m going back, of course. I’ve got to, Ma,” he said, looking regretful. “Tomorrow morning we go after Lee’s army. They’re already starting to slink away like whipped puppies.” He said this without gloating.

“Did you see Annie Baumann?” I asked carefully. “She is working as a nurse in the Weigels’ barn.”

“Gosh durn it, no,” he said. “I was hoping to see her here in town.”

“Luke’s in love with a girl,” Ben began chanting, but Luke only laughed at him.

“Who’s Lizzie in love with?” he asked Ben.

“No one!” I said quickly.

“Martin Weigel!” shouted Ben, darting away before I could grab him.

“That skinny farm boy?” said Luke in disbelief.

“You’re not the only one who’s changed in two years,” I said, feeling defensive of Martin.

“Come and eat something, Luke,” called Mama. “I dug deep in the pantry and found some potatoes for the soup.” She put a bowl in front of Luke and we watched him eat. “You’re so thin,” she said, cutting a generous slab of butter for his bread.

“That’s not fair,” I said. “We only get a teaspoon of butter each day.”

Mama sighed and started to scold me, but I interrupted her with a laugh.

“I’m teasing! Here, Luke, have some more. And tell us everything that happened to you the last few days. You were on Little Round Top.”

“How did you know?” he said between bites. “I hardly knew where I was.”

“I showed General Warren the road on the east side of the hill, and I was on Little Round Top when the battle started Thursday.”

“Gosh, you’re the one with the story to tell!” said Luke with his mouth open, showing his half-chewed food.

Mama raised her eyebrows at me. I hadn’t told her everything after all.

“Luke, don’t talk with your mouth full,” she said.

“Sorry, Ma. Well, we marched thirty-five miles on Wednesday, then bivouacked about a mile east of Cemetery Ridge. I fell asleep until Thursday afternoon, when we were called up and hustled into place behind a stone wall on that hillside, and I stayed there all night and all yesterday.”

“Did you see the Confederate charge yesterday?” Mama asked.

“Ma, a soldier can’t see nothing on the battlefield. You don’t know the plan. You just go where they tell you. All you know is the fence in front of you, or the ditch where you’re lying. Half the time, you don’t even know where the enemy is.”

“So that’s why the generals stand above the battle and give orders,” I said, thinking of the view from Little Round Top.

“Well, for their own safety, too. But no, I didn’t see the charge, didn’t hear until today that it was practically a massacre.” Luke finished chewing his mouthful of bread. “After it was over we got the order to clean out the woods in front of us, so we drove the rest of the rebels through Rose’s woods and a wheat field full of bodies. We captured a passel of prisoners, a heap of muskets, and the colors of a Georgia regiment.”

“How many rebels did you kill?” asked Ben, who had come into the kitchen.

“You don’t stop to count,” Luke said, a grim look on his face.

Mama pointed her finger, and Ben left the room sulking.

Luke shrugged. “That’s all. I was lucky. Others weren’t.”

I could tell he didn’t want to talk any more about the battle. He fiddled with his knife. Something was still weighing on his mind.

“Any news from Pa?” he finally asked.

Mama shook her head. “Are prisoners even allowed to write letters?”

“I don’t know,” Luke said.

“Are you sure he wasn’t wounded?”

“Ma, I’m sorry!” Luke said, covering his face with his hands. “I know I promised I wouldn’t come home without him, but—”

“Hush. There’s nothing you can do. It’s not your fault.” Mama said, stroking his hair. “I just wish I knew where he was.”

“Soldiers captured in Virginia often get sent to Belle Isle Prison, near Richmond. It ain’t such a bad place, I hear,” said Luke.

“Richmond! Why, I’ll write to my brother now. He works for the Confederate government. He can use his influence to find your father,” said Mama, springing up.

Luke and I were left alone. He toyed with the remainder of his food.

“So, how’s school?” he asked.

“I don’t even go to school. I’ve been too busy at the shop. Mama lets me make most of the decisions.”

“I would have made a mess of Papa’s business in two months,” sighed Luke. “So, you’re not still mad at me for leaving?”

“After two years? No, I finally got over it … sometime last week.”

Luke snorted. “That’s funny, Lizzie! I don’t remember you having a sense of humor.”

“If you don’t laugh sometimes, you’d always be crying, these days,”

I said soberly. “Luke, I learned this morning that Margaret’s beau died. She doesn’t know yet.”

“I was on burial detail this morning, Lizzie,” Luke began in a low voice. “I shoveled dirt on fellows who were alive just two days ago. In some places, the bodies lay so thick we had to just dig a trench right there and bury them all together. No one even said a proper prayer over them.” He exhaled raggedly and ran his hand through his hair. “I ain’t saying I wish I’d never enlisted. Hell, I’m glad we won this battle. Maybe we’ll win the war now. But North and South ain’t never going to be one country again. Who can forgive all this killing? And can anyone tell me what in the bloody hell—I mean, what in the heck are we fighting for?”

My heart went out to my brother. I had never seen him so distressed. Fortunately Ben staggered into the kitchen carrying a load of wood, sparing me from having to answer Luke. Amos was behind him with a bucket of water. Grace came up from the cellar with the baby wrapped in a small colorful quilt.

“Time to give mah son his first bath,” said Amos with a proud grin.

“What’s his name?” asked Luke with some effort.

“Lincoln,” said Grace. “After the president.” She tilted the baby so that Luke could see his round, scrunched-up face.

“What do you say we call him Lincoln
Benjamin,”
said Amos, “on account of this boy who kep’ me from bein’ sold back into slavery.”

Ben’s eyes lit up with pleasure. Luke looked back and forth between them, confused.

“That would be great! It will be like having another brother,” Ben said. Then he turned to Luke and added, “It’ll make sense once I tell you all the adventures Amos and I had.”

I put my hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Does this answer your question?”

Lizzie
Chapter 45

The next morning, the streets were free of stray rebels. It was Sunday, but there were no services, for every church in town was full of wounded soldiers. So Mama gathered everyone into the parlor for prayers. Even Noah Zimmer hopped up the stairs on one foot to join us.

Mama held the family Bible tight and just prayed from her heart, “We thank you, Lord, for restoring our loved ones to us. Your blessed mother was not so full of joy as we in this room.”