ZACH7-JULY 22
I’m writing a novel about a reluctant young man from Connecticut who joined the Union Army in the Civil War. Zach Higgenbottom found that he couldn’t shoot another human being.
Last week we ended with Zach and Rufus Smith coming upon two black men shot on the underground railroad. And an infant wrapped in a blanket.
Author’s note. I have been calling former slaves “black” people. The foremost relevant organization is the NAACP - The National Association for Advancement of Colored People. “Colored” is a good name - but not in common usage today (but in a historical novel might be alright).
“Negro” is an acceptable traditional name. The slang/slur of “nigger” is not a name I want to use. I have allowed the use in today’s chapter by ignorant backwoods white people.
**********
Zach brought the horse up, and Rufus and Zach were ready to put the two dead men on the horse. It was about eight miles and about two hours. It would be a sad walk to return to Rufus’ cabin.
But something wasn’t right. The two men seemed to be the station master guiding the man and the baby to escape. Shouldn’t there be a woman?
Rufus started to say something, but Zach held up his arm for silence. Was he hearing something?
Zach said, “Rufus, I think there is a woman nearby, the mother of this baby. Let’s check carefully.”
The moon had risen to be straight overhead when Rufus gasped. He tried to say, “Over here,” but he choked on the words.
Zach ran to where Rufus was and almost vomited. There was a woman on the ground. She had a dress pulled up over her waist. The dress was torn and dirty. Her panties were gone, probably tossed in the bushes.
Rufus croaked out, “I think she was raped and left for dead. I think she is still alive, but we need to get help.”
Rufus was sick to his stomach. “I think both men (assuming it was two) raped her while the other one held a gun on the station master and the traveler - and made the men watch. We have to get her to Stella.”
Zach picked her up and felt a slight pulse. Using his canteen, he washed the worst of the blood and dirt off of her and put the canteen at her lips, and she took the smallest of sips.
Together they put her on the horse. They tied the reins around her hands so she wouldn’t fall. Then they put the heaviest man in front of her. The horse probably couldn’t carry the dead men and the woman. Zach picked up the more petite man and put him over his shoulder; Rufus picked up the baby.
Getting the dead men, women, and babies to Rufus’ cabin would be challenging.
*****
Fortunately, it was a full moon and no clouds. Rufus had been this way many times and could almost walk the route blindfolded. Rufus walked by the horse with the woman and the more prominent dead man. Zach struggled behind, carrying the other dead man. He wished he had brought two horses.
After five miles, they came to the Black Warrior River. Zach would have preferred a bridge, but Rufus guided them to a shallow river ford. The horse, tired from the walk from Rufus’ cabin to the station and now from carrying two people, stopped in the middle of the river to cool his feet and drink water. Zach laid his man down and sat down when they reached the other side. Carrying a 130-pound dead man was heavy and tiring. He sat, panting, for about five minutes, when he got enough strength to keep going.
Rufus checked the woman. She still had a pulse, although it was faint.
About a mile later, Zach tripped on a rock and fell. The man he was carrying was just too much to move much farther.
Rufus asked, “Can you leave him and walk home with me?”
Zach blurted out, “I’m not sure, and won’t there be vultures and other animals that will want to …” He just couldn’t picture leaving a dead man here open and exposed.
Rufus grabbed some downed branches and covered up the man a little. “That should help a little. Let’s go”.
Without his load, Zach went faster and walked on the horse's left side and Rufus on the right.
The last two miles were a blur for Zach, but they reached Rufus’ cabin.
Stella immediately went to work attending to the woman and baby. The baby was crying and probably was hungry, but that wasn’t Stella’s priority.
The woman had whip marks on her back. A knife was cut under her chin; maybe the rapist held a knife to her throat to get her to submit. Around her vagina area, bruises were already showing up, as well as on her arms. When Stella touched sensitive regions, the woman involuntarily twitched.
Zach was asked to milk one of the female goats to get some milk for the baby. Zach had milked cows many times and had seen goats milked, so he grabbed a bucket and proceeded to milk the giant ewe goat. It had been a while since he had milked, and then it was a cow, not a goat. But this goat was patient. Zach was still tired but could hear the baby crying in the barnyard. He didn’t know how much liquid might be needed. Zach didn’t know much about babies. He couldn’t tell you if this was a newborn or a six-month-old.
Returning to the house, he showed Stella the amount in the bucket. She nodded and said get a syringe out of the kitchen. That was finding a needle in a haystack for Zach, and he brought about three items to Stella until she nodded her assent.
Filling the syringe, he put it in the mouth of the unhappy baby, and the crying stopped. Soon both the baby and Zach were asleep.
Meanwhile, Rufus took the horse back to pick up the second deadman. A few vultures were circling, but there didn’t seem to be any damage to the body.
He tugged the arms of the dead man until he got the body to follow over the back of the horse. Then he made the return trip to their cabin.
It was quiet when Rufus arrived. The lady slept on their bed. Stella was asleep in her chair. Zach was sleeping in the other chair with the baby.
So Rufus lay on the floor, and in two minutes, he was asleep.
*****
Robert Walford was up early. He noticed that a horse was missing from the stable. He thought it was the horse that Zach Higgenbottom frequently rode.
He checked with Jeremiah Follen to see if Zach had already eaten breakfast. The camp cook replied that he hadn’t seen Zach yet.
Robert went to the tent Zach and Benjamin Smith shared and quietly peered inside. Benjamin was snoring, but Zach’s cot was empty and looked untouched.
Robert returned to the mess tent, where Jeremiah was busy making pancakes.
Robert told Jeremiah, “Zach’s horse is gone, and his cot looks like nobody slept in it. Did he desert us?”
Jeremiah laughed, “I don’t think so. Zach is so involved with this farm. Maybe he is out inspecting crops.”
Robert replied, “That might be so, but how come his bed doesn’t look like he slept in it?”
Jeremiah said, “Robert, you’re too suspicious. Maybe he made it when he got up early.”
Robert retorted, “Yeah, in the dark, with a sleeping roommate next to him? I don’t think so”.
Charles Williams walked into the mess tent.
Jeremiah said to Robert, “Ask Charles; maybe he knows.”
Robert said to Charles, who was pouring his first cup of coffee. “Zach Higgenbottom isn’t in his tent; his horse is gone, he seems to be missing. Do you know where he is?”
Charles took a sip of his coffee. “I guess that he is at Rufus’s cabin. He seems to be helping out there with some projects.”
Charles knew that Zach helped Rufus with the Underground Railway that helped blacks escape slavery and cruel treatment, but he didn’t want that information learned in the camp.
*****
Two grubby-looking white men woke up bleary-eyed about noon at a shack in the hills about 25 miles southwest of the Connecticut Yankee’s experimental farm.
One said, “I hope that woman didn’t have crabs or syphilis.”
The other laughed. That was quite a night.
*****
Lieutenant Daniel Wheeler stopped by the Connecticut Yankee’s experimental farm late on the afternoon of Friday, October 23, 1863. He was bringing supplies for the next two weeks. He would be taking the harvested goods back to the main camp.
So far, with eighteen groups running farms, the positive return was significant. Dysentery had died away, and the sick call was almost empty. Morale was up, and the troops were ready for action.
The Connecticut Yankees loaded sweet corn, green beans, watermelons, cucumbers, cabbage, spinach, and more into his wagon.
As he was almost ready to leave, Zach and Rufus came over the hill with a horse and two bodies.
“What’s that all about?” asked Lieutenant Wheeler.
Zach stopped the horse next to the Lieutenant. He and Rufus discussed presenting it and decided the truth would be best.
Zach started. “Our friend Rufus is a station master on the Underground Railway. It is a way to help enslaved people escape the South and get a second chance. Last night, he was to meet the station master from the next stop South. Just before we arrived, we heard two shots and found these two men shot. One was the station master, and one was a black man. We found the bullets, and they weren’t army munitions. In the group was a blanket with a baby. We picked up the men and were ready to leave when we found a woman unconscious in the bushes. She had welts, bruises, whip, and cut marks. She was brutally raped. Stella, Rufus’ wife, confirmed that with lacerations and bruises in her (ah) groin area.
The lady is resting with Stella.”
Zach smiled and continued, “And I milked a goat to get nourishment for the baby!!”.
Zach shifted gears. “Friends, we are fighting a civil war to rid this country of slavery. But it still exists. We must step up to defeat these rebels and establish liberty for all.”
The men cheered at this. Benjamin Smith, Zach’s friend, and tentmate, cheered the loudest.
Lieutenant Wheeler cheered, too, like Charles Williams, the Connecticut Yankee’s farm project leader.
Zach asked Lieutenant Wheeler, “What should I do with these bodies?”
Lieutenant Wheeler looked at Rufus, “Do you have a cemetery here for our black citizens?”.
Rufus nodded, “We have a burial ground next to our little church.”
Lieutenant Wheeler asked, “Would it be acceptable to bury them there?”
Rufus nodded yes.
Lieutenant Wheeler looked at Charles and Zach. “Let’s have a formal service on Sunday morning. If any more blacks are in this area, Rufus will invite them to the burial ground tomorrow.
Lieutenant Wheeler looked at the group, “We should search for the killers. Maybe we can see if we can follow their trail in two days.”
*****
Wayne and Bubba Morris lived in Knoxville, Alabama. They were members of a rapidly growing organization, “White On White,” or “WOW” for short. They, like their brothers, knew the war was going against them. But, they could still play havoc and scare the negroes into submitting to White Men.
They had a little fun the other night; killing two of those dumb, ignorant niggers was fun, and having fun with the woman was a bonus.
They had been scouting the Underground Railroad for some time and figured that an almost full moon would be when the railroad was active. And BINGO - they were at the right place at the right time. They laughed, remembering how the one man’s eyes bulged out as they raped his woman. Then they shot him and the other one and hightailed it out.
If this was a station on the Underground Railroad, somebody would be coming to meet the family and take them to the next station. The following people might be carrying guns.
******
When Charles Williams, Zach Higgenbottom, and Daniel Wheeler were alone, Daniel spoke up.
“This killing is not the first. It seems a scare tactic to get the blacks to knuckle down. Even if the Confederacy loses the war, there will still be a lot of former slaves in the region. Maybe they won’t be enslaved anymore, but with enough intimidation, the white slaveholders could still control the black people”.
“We had squads and spies out looking for this group. Seemingly they are called WOW - I’m not sure what that stands for, but they seem to be growing. Soon we’ll find and break them up.
“Do look for white trash that might be haters of black people.”
******
The October day dawned with gray skies. By 9:30, the Connecticut Yankee’s Farm was starting to fill up for the memorial service. Charles Williams and crew had dug out every chair, bench, and stool for people to sit on. People were drifting in - in twos or threes. There were a few white people, but primarily sad-faced black people - pushed and prodded again by violence against them - not because of any genuine issue, but because the men were black.
The men of the Connecticut Yankee farm project provided water for the visitors. A note to the main Southern Union army brought wagons and men on horseback. Even General Frank Peck came to offer his condolences.
Five different men identified the Station Master as Bobby Hardy. Two thought the second man was Eustice Kepler from Wedgeworth - south of Knoxville.
Charles had sent a wagon to bring Rufus, Stella, and, if they could travel, the lady and the baby. They arrived about 15 minutes early. Rufus was dressed up as he was going to deliver the eulogy.
Lieutenant Wheeler greeted the lady, who said she was Daisy Kepler from Wedgeworth, Alabama. Daisy looked better than two days ago, and Stella had done a great job helping her dress and ride to the service. She cried even more when she saw her husband’s body. Their families had been slaves, and their owner was mean and brutal. Eustice finally had enough and arranged to be moved north on the Underground Railroad.
Stella put the baby in Zach Higgenbottom’s arms. The baby seemed to recognize Zach from the previous night and fed him goat milk. Isaiah was cooing. Zach thought, ‘When this war ends, my family can sponsor Daisy and Isaiah Kepler and help them move to Connecticut.
***
The service started with hymns, including “And Can It Be” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Then Rufus stepped up. Zach knew Rufus as the black man in a cabin on this farm, but this sure was a different Rufus as he started to preach. “Come until me all ye who are heavily laden, and I will give you rest,” “I am the Way, the Truth, and The Life,” and “I am the Resurrection and the Life. “
This black man was an inspiring orator when preaching the Gospel. Of course, he had plenty of encouragement as the black people would shout “Amen” or “Preach It.” Zach had heard of religious fervor at tent meetings back home in Connecticut, but this was as if he had landed in a different world.
He praised Bobby Hardy as the Underground Railroad Station Master giving his life to help the enslaved people reach freedom. He described the whip lashes of Eustice Kepler as being like the stripes that Jesus took going to the cross. He quoted from Isaiah 53, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Zach snuck a look at the other Connecticut Yankees listening to this poor black man preach and saw that their eyes were glued on Rufus, and they were listening to his every word.
Rufus finished by quoting the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Eustice Kepler was pursuing happiness for himself and his family.
Lieutenant Wheeler gave a prayer committing all of them to God’s grace. And, with that, the service was over, and lunch began.
Jeremiah Follen had gone all out. The beef was roasting on a pit fire; a pig roasted whole with an apple in its mouth, and potatoes, yams, greens, peaches, apples, and beer were on the table. For dessert, Jeremiah had apple and pumpkin pies.
Even Zach listened intently to Rufus’ message. How could he, in his present situation, serve God more? How could his life be one of love and forgiveness?
The gathering continued through the afternoon. Most of the blacks stayed together, as did the white soldiers.
*****
That evening in Knoxville, Alabama, another meeting occurred - but this one wasn’t of love, but of hate. The WOW group handed out white head coverings. This way, if they were killing or harassing blacks, they couldn’t be identified.
Wayne and Bubba Morris were fully inducted into WOW that night. After the meeting, about twenty men walked to the poor end of Knoxville and set fire to some of the shanties where blacks lived. They carried torches and hollered when a hut would go up in flames.
Maybe the South was losing the Civil War, but they would continue to harass the enslaved people.
*****
END OF EPISODE SEVEN OF ZACH HIGGENBOTTOM IN THE CIVIL WAR
LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORMS
Karen Anne White, ©, July 22nd, 2023
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