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small salary
and found before the War, now she just works for found. I can’t pay
her anything.”
    Sary jumps to her feet and gets right
in LaPree’s face, “Git out of mys kitchen you carpetbagger, git
yerself and yer trash out of the Misses house I say!”
    Pushing Sary aside, he begins throwing
dishes and pans about the kitchen yelling, “Where is the flour and
meal?”
    Seeing that delaying the inevitable
any longer is useless Malinda speaks to LaPree, “The flour and meal
are kept in the flour box,” pointing, “over in the corner.”
Sarcastically she adds, “Why don’t you help yourselves.”
    Following behind LaPree, Malinda
watches as he opens the lid to the box. “What the blazes?” The
Captain steps back, turns and screams, “it’s empty!”
    Malinda is as surprised as LaPree.
Stunned she replies, “I was trying to tell you we have no food. Now
get out of my house!”
    “ Well, I might not get any
food, but I’m not leaving empty handed – that son of yours will
make a fine soldier.”
    As they walk back toward the front
door, Malinda gently tugs at Captain LaPree’s sleeve. He turns,
“Could I have a word in private Captain?”
    She directs LaPree into the hallway
next to the upstairs steps. Once his men have gone outside Malinda
grabs LaPree’s hand. He jerks his hand back she grabs it once
again. This time she places a gold Double-Eagle coin in his palm.
“This is all the hard money I have, the rest is Confederate. Give
my boy at least a week to get our farm in order before he goes off
to the Army, please. We have one bale of cotton. If you wait until
then I can sell the cotton and I will give you all the money it
sells for.”
    LaPree opens his hand and sees the
twenty dollar gold piece. He rubs it between his thumb and index
finger. He sticks it between his teeth and bites hard it feels
good, but more gold from the sale of the cotton will be better, he
agrees to the proposition.
    As the scum of Southern society rides
toward the front gate, the family watches from the porch. For the
present William is safe, but Malinda knows her son is on borrowed
time – she does not have any cotton to sell, anywhere!
     

Chapter Ten
     
    HELP ME,
PLEASE!
     
    Robert is conscious enough to hear his
Confederate comrades running by his boulder as they retreat. He
tries to yell for help, but the words will not come out of his
mouth. His fellow soldiers have run off and abandoned him. There is
no hope for help. He believes he is dying – and he is dying
alone.
    However, help does arrive, in the form
of two Yankee stretcher-bearers. The two litter bearers find Robert
sitting against a large rock, unconscious. One grabs his arms and
the other his legs, and places him on an improvised litter. It is
no more than two poles and a blanket, but it serves the purpose. As
soon as they lifted him up and began to move Robert is struck in
the head with a bullet from a Yankee musket. It is a glancing shot
that does not penetrate his skull.
    His vision is blurred, and he cannot
see well enough to tell who his litter bearers are. He doesn’t care
who they are; if he doesn’t get help soon, he is going to bleed to
death. He could see dozens and dozens of soldiers as his two
saviors carry him through the woods to a medical wagon. He assumes
they are Confederates.
    Neither of the Union men noticed the
marks on the boulder as they moved him to the litter. Robert has
used his small pocketknife to scratch the letters, “2K168.” If the
soldiers noticed the scratches, the letters would have made no
sense to them. However, they are unquestionably important to
Sergeant Scarburg. Robert thought at least his rescuers were
Confederates. He can see them well enough now - they are dressed in
blue, they are Yankees! Only hours earlier they were trying to kill
each other now these blue-bellies are attempting to keep him
alive.
     
    Before being ordered to leave his
father Matthew and the volunteer hospital orderly Charles Babb