^bt iLibratp of tl)t £HniDet0itp of jQottj) Carolina THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY THE WILMER COLLECTION OF CIVIL WAR NOVELS PRESENTED BY RICHARD H. WILMER, JR. jf/iLmUCOLLECliOH ^'^L^ Cotton Stealing. 21 Nontl. — "WnO RICHEB GAINS BY WEONa, IS BUT A THIEF." CHICAaO: JOHN Ri WALSH & CO. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, btj. e. chamberlain, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, For the Northern District of Illinois. CHICAGO: CHICAGO TYPE FOITNBRT, J.W.TIDMARSn, J. CON A HAN, PBLSTER. STEREOTTPER I>IlEFA.OE. Every phase of the Cotton Trade, within the army » lines durincr the war, was so conducted that it ob- tained the name of " Cotton Stealing ;" and the parties engaged were called " Cotton Thieves." The mere fact that a man was concerned in cotton speculating, was prima facie evidence of corruption, putting the speculator before Treasury Agent, Army Official, and Detective, as saying — *' I AM IN the Market — Levy Black-mail on me." Early in the trade, small thieves could steal small lots of cotton, and enjoy the proceeds. After Army, Treasury, and Navy sharks fell on their track, not only their profits, but the cotton and capital invested was lost, while their precious bodies were oversha- dowed by a military prison, and their mouths gagged by a bayonet. Then the business fell into the hands of g7'eat thieves, who shall be nameless. " Truth is stranger than fiction." Although every incident set forward is believed to be true, still, as fiction, the work must either stand or fall. No one man, no single State, nor any particular year is de- signed. When names are mentioned, the acts are removed as far as possible, to prevent identification ; .•1^1 IV because, although founded on fact, and built of ma- terials furnished by actual experience of the cotton trade, the novel is a witness rather than judge — writ- ten by no believer in the doctrine of human perfec- tion, nor the possible power of any individual to re- model the age, nor the probability of a single work reaching the moral heart of the nation. It has been •written by a Western man as a cotemporaneous no- vel, to stand the test of to-day — by a Western man whose whole nature revolts against the attempts to deify the participants of the war, by magnifying virtues and extenuating faults, in some cases ignor- ing them entirely. There is one tribunal among a free people which no wrong-doer can escape — en- lightened public opinion. At its bar let friends and neighbors try every officer or soldier who comes home rich beyond his monthly pay. Wealth greater than this must be explained to the home tribunal, which alone can inflict the punishment of public condemna- tion. Will they do it ? Keeping this in mind when- ever the "I" appears, and any shall ask — Who is this "I"? this is the answer : — I am a Western man with a story to tell. Will any one read — will any one hear it ? CHAPTER I. "Detail for picket— Fall in, fall in!" ''Count off." " One, two — one, two." " Shoulder arms." *' By the right flank— file left— March ! " " Right shoulder shift arms — Forward ! " Last evening, the brigade commander sent orders to a regiment of Missouri Volunteers, at Helena, Ar- kansas, to detail a lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, and fifteen men for picket duty. * This morning, rub-a-dub-dub, rub-a-dub-dub, one, two, three, four taps, called the attention of the men to orderlies' call. On their return from the colonel's headquarters, each reported to his captain the order for picket, and the quota allotted to their company. " Company I. One corporal and five privates ; " whereupon, going to the company quarters, the or- derly sergeant calls : " Corporal Jones." " I am sick," he answers, crawling out of his tent, 6 COTTON STEALING. after a dozen voices have called " Corporal Jones," and one man opened the tent to hunt him up. " Sick be d — d ! You are always sick when your turn comes for picket." " I am sick, orderly. I have a bad cold and cough, and the Arkansas quickstep, so I can hardly move. I reported at sick-call this morning, and got some pills." " Yes, I remember. I saw you eoing to the bone- yard." " Who is next ?— Williams ? " '' He is on guard to day," said one of the boys. " There is Henry." " My turn comes to-morrow. Don't put me on. Put on Manet." " I don't want to put him on. He is almost sick. He never refuses, sick or well, and I would rather favor him than any one of you." At this moment the captain came to see how the de- tail was progressing. Henry was a favorite ; the weather was cold and inclement from rain ; and he took sides. " Put on Manet." " As you say. Captain," said the orderly, '* but it is rather hard on a good man." He was unwilling to oppose the captain, for promotion depended on keep- ing the right side of his officers ; moreover the captain did not like Manet, and the orderly knew, as did the captain, that no other corporal could get men to go with him on picket more readily than that same Manet. RBC McU COTTON STEALING. " Corporal Manet." " Here ! " A young man, not more than twenty- five, came out of a tent in answer to the call — a firm, quiet man — not six feet, nor below five-fcet-six, whose answer, ''here'' was characteristic. " You will report to the adjutant at headquarters for picket duty, immediately, with a detail of five men from this company." "Yes, sir." The detail obtained in the usual manner, reported. They were inspected by the adjutant and found cor- rect. Then the officer in charge was called away, and the men placed themselves at ease, growling after the manner of soldiers, who, when ready to march, are compelled to wait for some dilatory superior. At length the lieutenant came and gave the orders which begin this chapter. The picket-guard were in plowing dress— army blue— which had furrowed the long land from St. Louis, through the battle of Pea Ri(%e, and the rocky mountains, barren hills, and desolate swamps of northern Arkansas. A blanket rolled into a cord, was knotted by a string under the left armpit ; below this bounced a haversack, unbleached m-uslin when new, un- acquainted with a wash-tub since hardtack and cooked rations were introduced long months ago. Some men wore boots, others the common army shoe. Clothes and shoes stained with mud ; only one thing bright, their guns, set oif by the inseparable belt and ballot box, which contains forty votes for the Union. They marched through the hamlet— soldiers moving are 8 COTTON STEALING. always marching ; but little does that word march convey the motion of a company of soldiers through Helena at that time. The soft soil of the Missis- sippi bottom, wet up by rain, was churned by the thousand teams of mules, and by wagon wheels, to neither butter-milk nor butter. In some places the bottom had "fell out." The side-walk alone was navigable, in some places hardly that ; crossings were made on stepping-stones. The traveling was abominable. To call the insignificant collection of houses and stores, the two hotels and three small, diminutive churches — the collection of various buildings com- posing the Southern town of Helena, a hamlet, may seem arrogant to the wild bar of Arkansas, whose idea of a big city had only been formed from Napo- leon and Little Rock, while any one of those four- teen thousand soldiers who, under General Curtiss, won the battle of Pea Ridge, and cursed the miserable roads, rugged mountains, and thirsty bottoms they sweated and toiled through, in their long, tedious march to the Mississippi, could have named villages by scores, which, without a millionaire planter, or a negro slave, were more beautiful, more populous, and possessed more of the true essentials of a city. Yet the town of Helena was the outlet of all the cotton and tobacco of a large and rich extent of territory, monopolized by a few, whose interest excluded free labor and smothered the life of a town which, under Northern auspices., would have made a broad mark on the history of the nation. Whatever of insignifi- COTTON STEALING. 9 cance belonged to Helena has past ; the large force which occupied and fortified, its hills — the battle there fought — its important relation to the cotton trade, have become history. Those who accompanied that march will remember how beautiful, how inviting the sight, how superb the emotion as the first glimpse of the Mississippi fell on their weary columns, toiling over the hills ; how home-like the quiet town, dotted by a few man- sions of wealthy planters, set in gardens of green ; they will remember how soon wheels of army trains cut the wet streets into ruts, until ^' no bottom " could, "with the same truth, be said as of the Missis- sippi, leaving between fence and fence a sea of mud ; how the flock of carrion birds (camp pirates,) bastard offspring of sutler shops — lit on the gardens and front yards, building booths of cracker-boxes and fence- boards, in which pickles, ginger-bread, old eggs, and spoiling dainties not of army rations, tempted thir- teen dollars per month out of privates' pockets ; how soon after, followed the trade store, by special license of the commander-in-chief. The streets and side-walks were full ; mules and wagons were in knoe-deep possession of the straits of mud. Officers in shoulder-straps and pistols, cavalry in yellow trimming, sabres and pistols, artillery-men in pistols and red, and infantry in U. S. brass and bayonets, were jostling each other on the side-walk in the freedom of American volunteers passed out for the day. Cake shops, cider barrels, cabbages, onions, pota- 10 COTTON STEALING. toes and apples, were great centers of attraction. Whisky, at a dollar a pint, and brandy at seven and eight doHars per gallon, were contraband, and sought with all the avidity of contraband goods. Here and there some boy-soldier was reminding himself of home and Fourth-of-July by a dime's worth of candy. All the blue men were cheerful and happy. They had won the victory of Pea Ridge ; New Orleans was in our hands — Donaldson, Fort Henry, Island 10, Nashville, Fort Pillow and Memphis, were ours ; and they themselves were in comfortable quarters, with plenty to eat, for a long rest, after their tedious, toilsome campaign. In marked contrast, were indi- viduals clad in tatters, or well-worn homespun, dyed by oak or butternut bark, soured into the hue of dead leaves by ignorance of civilization. They were secessionists who had been conquered — good Union men while the army of the North was in possession, looking with greedy eyes on the clothing, boots, and shoes, pins and needles of the J^^, articles of which they had known the value since the war commenced. There were women, too, liot vrcll dressed* as New York or Paris would have called half-decent ; com- mon calico reduced to first principles, breadths scanty as before slave labor had made clothing cheap. All made way for the guard which came ploughing along, elbowing to clear themselves of the Scylla and Charybdis of mud, dangerous, with no song of the Syren. While the guard was passing one group of men and women, a young person of prepossessing features, COTTON STEALING. 11 elegant form and manner, despite her poor bonnet and dress, with the insolence of beauty, and know- ledge of man's natural politeness, with the dare of a proud, unconquered will, maintained her dry footing while her companions shrank shinglewise by the fence. A few gave her the road unjostled, others following encroached, until the line of guides natu- rally came where she was standing. The rebel female courted insult, conscious of ability to cut more keenly. The sergeant in front of Corporal Manet, who was acting as sergeant, resented the position by a muttered '' She-devil," and gave her the place ; the corporal caught the word, looked, and their eyes met. The eye has no expression. Taken alone, it is simply an eye. Cut off the forehead, hide the face below the under lid, and every expression is the same. Mirth, anger, sparkle of passion, flash of excitement, convey no meaning^ — nothing but an eye looking straight forward. Character is written in the facial lines. The gentle eye has a gentle heart writing night and day on pliant cheeks. The timid eye has a heart susceptible to the slightest wind of danger, putting fear on the lid and in the blood to blanch when it breezes. The blue eye, the black eye, the gray eye, the hazel eye, have power only as the fea- tures write or have been written distinctly over with the inside life of the soul. The soft eye, hollow eye, firm eye, have meaning ; as brow, nose, cheek, lips and chin, have held constant intercourse with the emotions of each day. But the eye has its tongue, its daguerrean power, can communicate, can receive 12 COTTON STEALING. electric sympathies, electric antagonisms, recognize weakness, discover strength : alone, it is nothing ; combined with the face and soul, it is a fighting mem- ber that reaches beyond fists, declares hostilities, and informs the combatants of the duration of the contest, the difficulty of victory or the impossibility of peace. Some eyes say, "Never, never, never! I can die — never, never will I yield ; you may vanquish, but I conquer when I am dead," These eyes thus meeting said these words, recogDized tliis will. Be- fore any contest between a soldier and a woman was possible, a man of the woman's party put a strong hand on her shoulder and drew her from the way. "Le-ette!" said the man. She started at his voice ; she yielded to his hand. Was it more the hand or more the voice power ? This woman yielded that will which would have died in the soldier's path, to the voice, the hand of this other man, who had an eye — a black eye — with its firm " never " as firm as her own. When the guard reached the outskirts of the town, the lieutenant divided his command into three squads, stationing them at different points which were within his instructions. One of these squads of men, much smaller than the others, was assigned to James Manet, acting sergeant, who had been stationed here before. " Lieutenant," said he, " you are making the guard too small. When we were stationed here, this road was considered most important, and was most carefully guarded." " Who asked your advice?" COTTON STEALING. 13 " I only offer you my opinion." " Opinion be hanged." " I only do my duty." " Your duty is to obey. If you do not keep a cool tongue I will put you under arrest. Fall in guard — March !" In silence the men proceeded to occupy the post assigned them. They reached the top of a hill, where they paused a moment for breath. Some had been here, and knew the place as selected by their commander for the picket-post — a place admirably adapted to watch all the surrounding country, and particularly the road they were guarding. Of course they, as volunteers will, began to break ranks. " Who in Lucifer told you to stop ? Take your place in the ranks. Forward ! until I order you to halt." " Lieutenant, this is the only safe picket- post on this road for a mile. I have been over the ground, and know." " Corporal, speak when you are spoken to. This is the second time you have meddled. Be careful not to do it again." The Lieutenant led his men down the hill, looking for a post, passed over a bottom, then up and down a short swell, and stationed his guard under a walnut — a huge, hoary giant with Briarean hands, each finger-end a leaf; an agreeable spot, but unpro- tected on either flank, dangerous in front, and sus- ceptible of being cut off in the rear. The men saw their danger, but would not remon- 14 COTTON STEALING. %trate witli their officer, who had no extraordinary surplusage of brain^ and was " putting on style " for effect. During the day he remained with them, attending to his duty as officer of the picket, examining passes and permits, and searching for articles contraband of war. ToAvard evening, he put the guard into the corporal's hands while he went away. Soon after, so soon as almost to seem that he left to avoid responsibility, wheels were heard approach- ing. The guard prepared to fire, but the drivers seemed intent to stop, and the miserable place was good excuse for apparent violation, or full intention to pass beyond army lines. A number of women were riding in each wagon and no one could fire on them. There were also several male and female riders on horseback, in the rear, who at the same time halted at the headquarters of the picket. Here was abundance of trpuble. Nightfall, wag- ons loaded, a large company, whose passes must be examined and " plunder " searched. All were impa- tient to proceed. The responsible officer on duty was absent, and a corporal, with this small guard, com- pelled to do it alone. It looked like treachery — it looked like Cotton. The corporal knew his duty. Stationing a man at each flank approach, he ordered the guard to form a line around the men and women, while he and two men proceeded up the hill and examined the wag- ons. Immediately the butternuts began to show the COTTON STEALING. 16 passes, their permits, and deprecate delay, to occupy his time by clamorous calls for imspii^iate attention, protesting against detention, aC^ night was near, pleading to go on, reiterating in loud tones their faithful Unionism. Their earnestness was suspicious ; they were too officious. He asked them if the teams belonged to them ; they answered " Yes." " Then you will wait here until I see them all right. If I find anything wrong, you shall go to Helena together." As he reached the foremost wagon, one of the women asked permission to speak to the officer in charge. She had chosen her man skilfully, and en- forced her request by a smile^ in the soldier's dialect — a bottle of whisky. She walked her horse to the opposite side of the wagon from the corporal, then, suddenly starting, the animal flew up the hill. "Halt, or I fire." The woman did not even give him a glance, but rode more swiftly. As he spoke the corporal sprang to the road-side. His gun dropped to a sight ; the report, the zip, zip, zip, of the minie-ball, and the dropping of her liorse in tlie road followed. "Back! back ! — stand back, I tell you," said the guard to the prisoners, who would have rushed to see were she dead or alive. The woman rose from the ground and then fell on the neck of her horse. The corporal loaded his Springfield rifle on the run, and she confronted the same eyes that had met her's now full of tears, when he said, " You are my prisoner." 16 COTTON STEALING. Instinctively the woman put her hand to her pocket. The movement was such that the corporal said, put- ting his bayonet at a charge before her breast : " Hand me your pistol." In his eye she read a will, firm as her own. She changed her determination, drew out her pass, and as she gave it to him, the spirit of resistance asked : '' Why did you kill my horse ?" " Your pass is correct. Why did you attempt to run the guard?" She made no reply, her attention being called to the horse struggling to get up. " I thought I creased him," said the corporal. But when he put out his hand to take the bridle, the animal, which had recovered, jumped away. At a word from his mistress the horse came, and the woman put her arms about the animal's neck, again shedding tears, and saying, "Janie — dear Janie." The corporal noticed that her hand was twisted in the mane, and not knowing but she might again try to escape, advanced and took the rein. Le-ette looked at him, drawing her upper lip like an iron ligature around her front teeth, which glis- tened with a deadly white, while impatiently gnawing her lower lip. With a mighty effort restraining the . volcano within, she said, " You might have shot me." He answered proudly, ''I should not have killed a woman. You had no reason to run guard, unless, " A guilty conscience needs no accuser." Stand one side I shall have to search you. Perhaps you are a spy." COTTON STEALING. ij Then he continued to himself, "Where can that lieutenant be?" "I -wish he was here," said she. "Bad I Bad — business. There are too many — something is wrong I AVhat can I do?" Then, he ordered a man to take her to the others, and "watch her closely." He went to the wagons, took the papers offered, and found them official and correct. If he was only sure the articles were none but those permitted, they might pass. That was the rub ; that was why he was here stationed. Every parcel ought to be examined. Then it flashed over him that they belonged to the party of the female who had attempted to escape, and all ought to be detained. Le-ette spoke to a man of the company, when she came back, and the corporal found them posted when he asked, "does this person belong to you?" The man answered, "Nol" though there was a half "yes;" and one who had not received the hint was checked by the emphatic injunction, prefaced by an impreca- tion on his soul — "Dry up." A faithful picket is suspicious. He has no right to take anything for granted. Eyes, ears, the whole consciousness ask questions, receiving the plainest answers with a doubt. Tens of thousands of minds are consolidated in him. The Hfe of the army is in his keeping. The responsibility admits of no tem- porizing, gives no discretion, and calls for absorbing attention. Where was the heutenant, officer of the 2 18 COTTON STEALING. picket? Gone — bought off. In an instant James had decided. "Turn back every one of those teams ; takeout the horses and corral them under the trees. The rest take positions and keep the whole company under guard until the lieutenant comes. I shall report him for leaving his post." The women and men were not in tears. Sterner emotions dry up such moisture in contact with war. Actual starvation, absolute destitution of comforts and luxuries, had compelled them to seek the Federal lines, to take an oath they hated, to humiliate them- selves before a clerk of the Treasury Department, to beg like a slave for the addition of one pair of shoes, one more pound of coffee, of sugar, of tea, one more pattern of calico, one more box of pills ; .when this was over, a similar battle had to be fought with a clerk of the provost-marshal ; and even then, the chief, with a pen-stroke, dashed out the choicest hopes. Afterward the commanding general, in some unaccountable way, had interfered, and now, neces- sity, not the lighter task-master, regarded inexorable in peace, but the inflexible, stern, heartless necessity of war arrested them on the lines, within sight of the promised land of secessia, where they would be safe. They were almost escaped, almost home, almost free — one move more ! In such a moment the soul poises, as a sailor who has mounted the shrouds, passed man- ropes and foot-ropes, clear above royal-stays, until he has climbed the naked spar, and stands on the main- royal-mast truck — poises on the brink of a great COTTON STEALING. 19 hope. They were almost home. That order dashed their hopes to the bottom. Arrested! — Prisoners ! — oaths all nothing, goods seized — confiscated. The future was bottomless as the ocean. They crowded around the private, who by the fortune of the hour held their destiny in his hands, to try if they could persuade him to let them go. They besought, en- treated, threatened, promised. At this moment one of the guard fired. With the report came the sound of horses' feet. The sight of his men scatteriag into the bush, the volley, and the answering pistol shots, together with the charge of the guerillas, was instantaneous. Dropping Le-ette'? bridle, which he had retained, the corporal leveled his musket, whereon came a flash, with its report. One guerilla in advance threw up his arms, and drop- ped from his horse. A foot remaining in the stirrup, his head was dragged against the rough road, until the saddle turned, and the afii'ighted animal, mad- dened with terror, disposed of both seat and rider. A howl of rage fell from the gang. Two avengers spurred up, one with sword, the other with leveled pistol. One horseman's arm was broken by a blow from a musket. The same blow changed to the guard-against-cavalry, receiving a deep dent from the sword it warded oif. The riders were carried past by their impetus, one with the addition of a bayonet- thrust also, to take along. The next ridei drove his horse over the corporal, taking his swora from his head as the horse's chest struck his right side; this impetuous rush felled the Union soldier prostrate, 20 COTTON STEALING. and, as if that were not enough, a stone-cut opened his left temple. When the corporal awoke to consciousness he was jolting through dark woods, his body promiscuously doubled over the articles in one of the wagons ; rain was falling in his face ; he was wounded, and a pris- oner. He tried to move, intense pain admonished him of the uselessness of any attempt to escape. He felt, and found three ribs broken ; then he thought of home, of mother — and wished to die. tV. ^- CHAPTER II. The party came to a lialt about clayliglit, opposite Friars' Point. Here a man, not captain, neither officer nor member of the band, took charge of affairs. A mysterious power belonged to him. Savage speci- mens of humanity, regardless of their superiors, treated him with deference — a deference he acknow- leged with that quiet dignity which accompanies men conscious of authority. The tie which bound them was not the war-link of officer and soldier. Said he : " We will now divide the plunder." As soon as he had spoken, a shaggy ruffian ex- claimed — "I'll be dyed ef yuh do !" " Then, you will be dyed." It gives pain to think of the grevious, shocking profanity which is the usual dialect of passion. The war was impregnated with oaths as with an atmos- phere. All must breathe air : with each breath of such ah comes a certain pollution. Still, no true history can be written which fails to notice this char- acteristic iniquity ; nor can an accurate representa- tion of the men who act in these pages be made with- out an indication of the hot words steaming, fetid, 22 COTTON STEALING. from their tainted souls. The language of heaven cannot come from the heart of a demon. To avoid this as much as possible, the changes, present, past, and future, of the word " damn," are rung upon the word " dead'' — since the dead only can receive that punishment of awful fire and brimstone which is com- passed in the eternal penalty '^ damned." Men whose hearts are a sewer, have a mouth from whose funnel vapors pour (as cones in a volcanic crater send forth noxious gasses), foul mouths, always in eruption, belching oaths, as ^tna or Vesuvius throw out rocks. This guerilla was such an one, and speaks, first in- voking the Almighty : '*- We need them 'ar, a heap mor'n them uns, 'nd ef we'd'nt come in, whar'd they be ? They 'longs t'us ; our boys paid for 'um — what's berrying yon- der.*' A ferocious gleam passed through his eyes. The calm demeanor and conscious strength, the acquies- cence of others who gathered around, and another something, of which the guerilla knew, held bound his hand, ready to shoot with the deadly revolver. Sla- very produces material for cold-blooded assassins. They existed before the war ; they have multiplied like August-flies since, and the nearer the destruc- tion [it is not yet destroyed,] of their pet institution — that sum of all villainies — approaches, do many more threaten to become guerillas, cut-throats, ban- dits, and assassins, if their way is not given them. As if recognizing the inevitability of those words, the uselessness of contending against the band^ that COTTON STEALING. 23 point was abandoned ; but only to open a valve for suppressed fury, which found expression upon the prisoners. There were four unwounded ; two others beside the corporal wounded. These last had been moved from the wagons, and were lying beside a tree. All were under guard, but the wounded were not so closely watched ; there was no danger of their running away. This blood-hound [Can the Chinese doctrine of trans- migration of souls be true ?] in human shape, when unable to bite his superior, drawing his pistol on one under guard, was on the point of firing, when the sentinel checked him, saying : " Oh, Hugo ! Jim, what's the use ? Let 'em starve at Belle Isle." '• l}j , that's so ! " adding, " I must kill some- body. I'm dyed wolfish this morning." "Then give it to that one," was the reply; the guard pointing to a poor soldier in Union blue, whose leg was broken by a ball above the knee. The prisoner heard the remark, and attempted to avoid death. So strong is hope of life — so strong the hope of living through all this torture, to meet a wife and child at home he raised himself on his hands to crawl away on the unshattered knee, drawing his useless leg after him in its bloody garment. The guerilla, profanely ejaculating His name who died for sinners, added, " See the hog escape !" then placed his gun-barrel [he had put up his pistol,] at the man's ear, and fired the charge thrpugh his head. The wad and ten buck-shot enter, making a hole 24 COTTON STEALING. the size of a door-knob — but leave none of the other side. Shot, skull, brains, blood, and soul, went out together ; and then tlie guerilla kicked the lifeless form. Another came up to see the ^' sport," cursed him in hell-dialect for a " fool, to waste a shot on a Yankee skunk who couldn't git up an' git." Others also gathered to see the doings ; among them an officer. To him one said : " Jim has finished one dyed son of a Yankee log of wood ; and, by the way, his foot is planted on that ar one's belly. I reckon his biler'l bust." The prisoner subjected to this indignity, scarcely twenty-one, was almost girlish in appearance. A heart too large for his body volunteered to endure the hardships of war. The poor frame, after the pri- vations, almost starvation, of the march, had been drained of its life by the fearful camp dysentery ; yet the heart, the will, never refused duty ; went on picket, stood faithful at his post, was wounded by a pistol-shot in the abdomen, and was dying before that cruel foot crushed its weight down. Then the officer spoke, invoking the Almighty — " rot yom' soul, Jim. What are you doing ?" ^' He was trying to escape." . " The sarpint ! he was ! Don't you see death in his face?" " I kinder reckon he won't run much furder ; didn't calkerlate he shood. That ar 'un I'll fix him 'fore I'm dun." The corporal sat against a tree, bolstered thus by one who had a remnant of soul. It was the easiest COTTON STEALINGK 25 position lie could lay in ; and from it he could witness the horrid scene, and anticipate the future which awaited him. His thoughts were like those of the drowning. The solid memory of the past and this experience were present — a picture in which every thought had the identity of a leaf, limb, tree — a brain-forest, whose foliage, distinct as reality, was imperishable as eternity. lie saw his mother in her mourning widowhood, and in the mind-laden duties of to-day, happy in ig- norance of him threatened with death — felt the sus- pense, when the lagging report of his company, at- tacked on picket, reached her ; endured the throbs of dread, passing in combat with wishes of hope, that the missing might prove alive. Dreary, so. dreary, to live betwixt and between death and life, sustained by the possibility contained in the word "missing." Home, native state, sisters, loved one, country, the future of the war, his foster-brother's death and lonely burial ; this attack ; comrades dead — happy to be shot dead. This torture from a human form I Oh, there must be a hell ! If there is no hell, let all decent people call that part guerillas frequent in heaven by the name Hell ! and keep away from it. His mind was illuminated, as a forest in a midnight storm is lit up by an unearthly flash of lightning, re- vealing an infinity of impression during the short in- stant, between the words of the men, as they left the gasping boy and came to him. No word of expostulation, no appeal for mercy fell from the corporal's lips. He would no more ex- 26 -COTTON STEALING. pect or ask this of that creature than of a carniverous animal, whose eye shone implacable over a hungry open jaw, whose glittering fangs contrasted savagely with a long red tongue, dripping with anticipation. He looked not him, but death, in the eye — an eye alike in man or beast — seen before with a will which kept every muscle firm — kept his eye unmoved. A groan, the last expiring labor of the young life, attracted a new observer to the scene — Leette, ridins by with the captain. They were in season to see a blow — a cowardly assassin's answer to a steady look, which knocked the corporal prostrate, whence slowly, with great agony, he was only able to lift his head, put it on the hand of his unwounded arm, and turn his face to them. His eye met Leette's^ and she re- cognized — not entreaty, nor defiance — but endur- ance, waiting without fear or hope. " Hell-cat I " she exclaimed. That poor white, of no account, not even a nigger, ornary, trash, was an object of loathing. All of nobleness in her nature revolted against a blow upon a wounded man — one who was too chivalrous to shoot a ^oman when he had the right. The man looked to his captain, and said : " He killed two of we 'uns, 'nd I thout I'd spare the trouble of totinor his carcass to t'other side." o ^'That's so,'-' said the captain. "We cannot be bothered with wounded." " I fixed them 'uns," said the brute, pointing to the two dead men, with the assured look of one con- fident of approval. COTTON STEALING. 2T Bj this time the whole band were gathered about the prisoner, and among them the citizen who had been dividing the spoil. He asked : " Who will take care of him ? " " Leave him in the bush," said some one, " to starve and become food for hogs and turkey-buzzards." " Let me kill him," said another. ^' Throw him into the river," was the voice of a third ; while a fourth used the English classic which we have changed to "dead," and exclaimed, in con- tempt : " What a dyed fuss about a dyed Yankee ! " " Will any one be responsible for him ? " asked the captain. No one replied. The band, with a roving com- mission, had no fixed T][uarters ; no surgeon, no hos- pital. Their ^wn men were abandoned to the chance of care which the poor white's hovel or the slave's cabin afforded. '' I reckon I mout 's well send him tu hell, 'long with t'others. I don't often ax yah. Captain ; I'd take it mighty kind on you to guv this yer." Before the captain could reply, the citizen above alluded to asked : "Did your mother ever keep boarders, in New Haven?" The young man was, from pain, unable to speak, but nodded "yes." " I thought so. I boarded at her house. Leette, that chap made my fire, and blacked my boots, when I was in college. Can't you do for him ? " 28 COTTON STEALING. " Yes ; give him to me. I will take care of him." Leette perceived a frovrn of disapproval, which was*not confined to privates. Their indignation was braved by this defiant excuse : ^' He spared my horse ; I would spare him for that. Janie has done more than you all together ; I would not exchange her for a dozen Yankees." "You hear what the lady says?" The captain addressed the corporal. " Give your parole of honor not to attempt to escape." " No ! " was his reply — hardly heard, it was so low — ^unmistakable from the emphatic negative of the head. Put the word " dog " after three strong, profane intensives, and you have what the guerilla captain said ; follow them by " Bully for you ! He has good pluck ; I like him the better. I will take the respon- sibility ; he cannot run at present:" and you have what Leette said — the words that decided the ques- tion, and saved liis life. There were, however, murmurs of discontent among the men ; one face, in particular, was black as a thunder-cloud. The storm was not to be. The citi- zen leader had reasons for keeping peace. He ad- dressed them : " Boys, you can afford to give Miss Leette her own way, when you know how she has outwitted the Yankees. The barrels of salt she brought from He- lena have powder and caps for you all ; the barrel of sugar is sugar only on the outside — the inside is made up of quinine and morphine. I cannot tell you COTTON STEALING. 29 everything she has brought through the lines ; but you can judge of its value to our army when I assure vou its cost was twenty thousand dollars in green- backs. Nor is this all. She has brought for you a supply of army-shoes. There are a few dozen woolen shirts, and a choice collection of other valuable arti- cles. These are all for you. Now you can under- stand our anxiety to get these wagons safely through the Federal hnes. You know why I insisted on the attack, and forbade your burning the " cotton " you brought in. It is true, we have lost some of our brave boys, but their lives are well spent for their country — they have bought medicines, ammunition — articles priceless, as we were destitute. Some of you were unwilling to give a share of the " plunder " to those women who brought it out ; they did not know that it was only through them Miss Leette got the permits which concealed these articles. Now, when you know that your own share, the pro- portion of the government, is not diminished by the small lot they receive, I am sure you will have no objections to their return home with all I have given them." '^ No, no, no !" responded the band, astonished at the magnitude of the operation in which they had, unwittingly, been engaged. Leette, too, was aston- ished. No one but the cotton speculator, and his agents in Memphis, knew of the secret importance of those rusty barrels of salt, and flour, and sugar — the contents of those harmless boxes of ladies' wearing apparel. Nor can any one, who has not made the 30 COTTON STEALING. experiment, form an idea of the amount of valuable war material which can be compressed into a very small space. The cotton speculator was not yet done. He noted the change among the guerillas, deter- mined it should be complete, and continued — '^ When Miss Leette was coming out she saw the teams had been stopped, and knew all was lost if any examination was made. By agreement, the officer in charge of the picket was away — but his subaltern was too honest. He had ordered the whole party under arrest. On this, Leette, at the peril of her life, dashed by the guard to come to you and obtain aid. This man fired — the shot which gave us the alarm — and brought us so opportunely on the ground. Had he chosen, he might have killed Leette ; as it was, he did not even wound her horse. Here is the bonnie mare to-day, ready for another brush ; or, and I may as well tell you this, now, ready to take Miss Leette to Yazoo City with some most important news which she has obtained, of a new expedition against Vicks- burg — Gen. Grant's design to attack in the rear, while McClernand and Sherman go down the river and attack in front. She will make the trip in thirty hours — impossible without the bonnie bay mare Janie !" " Hurrah for Miss Leette, and the bonnie bay mare ! " said the guerilla captain. And three hearty cheers were given with a will. "Now," resumed this man, "I vouch for Miss Leette's having no share in a single article she has so successfully brought out, and ask, shall she not COTTON STEALING. 31 have the man who spared her mare ? — I may say her own life ; especially when the prisoner, as soon as he gets well enough to march, will be sent to prison at Richmond, where he will be exchanged for a better man, now in a Yankee prison ; or where he may have the pleasure of catching the small-pox, or starving to death in the glorious old Libby, or on the sands of Belle Isle?" "Let her have the dyed Yankee." "Bully for Miss Leette." "She's a brick." " Let her take him." "Let him go, if she says the word." These, and other words of approbation were falling from the men, as, with pleased smiles, they left the corporal (sorry, now, he had not killed Janie,) to go to the precious spoils which the bribery of cotton had successfully passed through the Federal lines. The goods were unloaded on the ground. A team (Miss Leette's) sent back to a swamp, where a large flat-bottomed sc^w was carefully concealed. This was raised bodily on to the wheels and drawn to the river. When launched, it made a long, narrow bat- teau, capable of carrying ten bales of cotton, one hundred men, or quite a squad of cavalry. On this ferry Leette and her horse were set over, also the contraband of war, which was speedily con- cealed among the houses at Friars' Point. James was laid on the bottom of the wagon, and driven to Leette's plantation, where he was put in the care of Leette's old "mammy" — where we leave him. CHAPTER III. Friars' Point is a little hamlet, on the Mis- sissippi river, some one hundred and five miles south from Memphis, and about fifteen or twenty miles below Helena. A few miles above was once the small town of Delta. At an unfortunate moment, guerillas fired upon boats passing with troops. Speedy punisliment followed, in shot, shell, and fire. Delta is now chim.neys. What a sad series of emotions the sight of lone chimneys suggests to the traveler on the Mississippi ! When cotton was in its glory, before slavery de- manded the neck of freedom for its foot-stool, the picturesque villages of negro quarters, whitewashed and glistening, had a peculiar, quaint look — from the location of every chimney outside, on the end of the house. The chimney of the planter's more preten- tious mansion was not an exception. Then the eye, watching the changing scenery, caught sight of chimneys with houses between ; chimneys with smoke issuing out ; chimneys, with troops of children playing below, martins and swallows playing above ; chimneys alive, happy. Now, as then, the eye catches COTTON STEALING. 33 chimneys — but no houses, no smoke, no cliildren. All are gone, except the monumental spire of briclv — tombstone of southern rights, standing on the grave of the unpaid life-service of the negro. Above Friars' Point, toward Helena, the river spreads over a wide bottom ; at high water making a broad lake, at low water drawing the current into a Gulf stream on Sandy Tortugas, making the channel difficult and treacherous, brino;ino^ the deck-hand to the port and starboard-lead, singing the song echoed by the officer of the deck to tlie pilot perched in his wheel-house — a martin-box on lofty Texas. That funny refrain — " And a quarter twain — nine and a-half, making men laugh. Eiglit feet large, then seven and a-half, and you're drawing seven ; now, six feet scant — the last, the last, you stop with a jerk — your boat is fast." Dingle, dingle, ding, ring the stopping-bells ; jingle, jing, jing, nerv- .ously twang the backing-bells. Then follows a jar- gon of tingling brass, Greek to every nation, dialect, and people, save that semi-barbarous, semi-enlight- ened, semi-civilized, whole-hog, half-alligator speci- men of humanity, a Mississippi-river-steamboat-man. Everything has stopped, while the center of gravity has gone on, almost knocking overboard the chimneys, wrenching every timber and brace, and turning crock- ery and chandeliers into a harp of a thousand strings. The boat is on a sand-bar ; the river is falling ; this is the notorious rendezvous of guerillas ; what will be the fate of boat, passengers, and crew ? The writer was at Friars' Point, on a cotton boat, 34 COTTON STEALING. at night, tied to a stake, steam up, hot water hose in position, and a determined man, who fought with Sigel at Wilson's Creek, in charge of the pipe ; engineers v/ere at tlieir station, pilot at his wheel, and everything ready for backing out. Some sixty men, a whole company of guerillas, filled the cabin, drinking at the bar, swearing at us, and cursing every " dyed son of a Yankee hog." One man came quietly to the ofl5ce, whose gar- ments could not- hide, to the experienced eye, his eagle mind and lion will. He said : " You have come to buy our cotton. We will sell, but you must understand this, we must have sup- plies. Your money is worthless to us, as ours is to you, save as it furnishes us with articles of prime ne- cessity. Our government does not permit the sale of any cotton. I have a commission to burn, and have burnt thousands of bales. I never fired a bale without regret. If Jefi". Davis had taken my advice, not a pound would have been destroyed. I would have fought, I would have conquered with cotton. I would have sold the whole crop, taken your green- backs, and bought gold. With that gold our Confed- erate scrip should have been redeemed, and kept at par. Your green-backs would have depreciated to what our paper now is — a bushel not worth a damn. You understand me. I would have shipped our cot- ton to England, using you Northern men as our com- mission merchants, paying you handsomely for your trouble. Cotton will bring something in gold. Tliis we would have received. We have burnt our cotton, COTTON STEALING. 35 destroyed our wealth, and our currency is poor as hell. Our rulers are beginning to see their mistake, are about ready to adopt my policy. I will take the responsibility ; we must have supplies. If you will bring us them, we will sell you cotton. For the sake of supplies we will take a portion in green-backs. We must have supplies. Now you are in the cotton business, get us supplies; we will not hurt you. When we have our bellies fully then look out — we wnll give you good warning." AVithout deciding the accuracy of his reasoning, the correctness of his theory, or its harmony with prin- ciples of political economy, the honesty of the man was self-evident : one of those men enthusiastic in defence of slavery, with the idea of a Southern Empire big in their imaginations. This man may be taken as a type of those who saw a future for themselves in destruction ; men who owe their genius to American institutions, yet would overthrow the system which gave them oppportunity to rise ; who would build up in the New World a monarchial gov- ernment on a European model, in which they were to be lords and nobility. In '1853, this man, whose name I call Kendal La- Scheme, was a senior in Yale college, rooming with a Northern class-mate whose name was Sandison. Both were poor and proud, but not equally depend- ent on their own exertions. Kendal dishonored the North by boarding with an uncle who had been South to conduct the mechanical part of his father's boot Ind shoe business. That father had married a North- 36 COTTON STEALING. em school teaclier, a shoemaker's sister. When their property, invested in business, had been lost in a commercial crisis, which cost the son his father, the uncle returned North." Kendal, however, was bred among slaves, whereby a natural love of power was constantly cultivated amid the degrading conscious- ness of pecuniary want. Ilis mother, proud of her son's blood, which she flattered herself descended directly from the lofty mountains of ancient aristocracy, bro^glit from Eng- land in old colonial times, taught him a corn-cob les- son of poverty clad in scanty silks, and, at her de- cease, had perfected him in the art of deception. He despised the relations whose riches reminded him of destitution, and resolved to carve out his own for- tune. Too shrewd to make enemies, he secured every possible advantage from them before he came north to his uncle ; then, entering his uncle's family, went to school with his cousins, and other children, whom he despised because they were " mud-sills," arrogating the pretensions of Southern aristocracy and wealth. His will, cultivated by slavery, tamed by necessity, was stubborn and implacable, ever accomplishing that which he undertook, hesitating nev^', calculating all chances, and yielding not to successive failures. Sandison, his room-mate and cljass-mate, resembled him in poverty, ^nd approached him in tenacity of purpose. Both were friends, because neither could afford to be college enemies. Sandison would do smaller actions. This, perhaps, may be an error ; Kendal, being more astute, could make him seem to COTTON STEALING. 37 do them — for neither would hesitate to do wrono; if advantage coukl thereby be attained ; in proof of which, one instance only need be citeIiss Leette were be- hind the levee, at such a distance from the river that thej could not easily be seen. The stranger passing on a steamboat can only discover the deep foliai'e of those beautiful eversireen trees, which are a pride and glory to the south ; which seem so much more beautiful than the firs and pines of the North, because their contrast with common vegetation is so distinctly marked ; because when leaves have fallen in the Fall, they are so deeply green, so magnificently in harmony with the sad sombre hue of the bare grey of twigs, limbs, and tree-tops. Mr. Ledonc had little taste for gardening. Le- ette's taste was wild and extravagant. Impulsively seizing an idea, she carried it to an extreme, after- wards abandoning it as a child tired of a toy. Her uncle was practical, caring more for a sweet-potatoe patch than a garden ; but he was also systematic in potatoe patch and garden ; consequently the walks were always neat, and the borders trimmed. Le- ette's roses, after her first fancy passed, ran wild in untrimmed luxuriance, and her shrubbery was un- "What are you thinking about i James answers, " My mother." Quickly Leette asks, as if her care and kindness were called in question, "Are you not at home. What more can I do ? " tvt i.- His reply, following a long breath, is, -Nothing. I am a prisoner getting ^H. I bave not heard from home since my brother's death." He becomes silent. She waits for him to tell more ; but nothing follows, and Leette, believing the cause of his -rief something beyond the loss of a brother, — belicTincr the time for confidence ripe, says : " JamesVl must call you James,-I think you mean more than mother." u Yes " is his answer. " My brother s wife and child." . ,1 . X She waits again for him to speak, knowing that at- tention and sympathy ask questions more to the point than ignorant words. He continues : " What will become of them ? " This she cannot answer, and holds her tongue acrain. What does she care ? Nothing. Nor doea he for what she may think. His thought is inward, as his next words show : " I fear lest mother, thinking I am dead, may give up hope. It may be, Lilly Sue will wisTi to go. She loved us." 94 COTTON STEALING. Then came a triumpliant thought, flashing im- agined success through Leettc's brain, " Here is the key to this Yankee heart. Lilly Sue. Who is Lilly Sue? " and she asked him. She is disappointed to liear him answer: " My sister, dear Lilly." Again, seeking the heart, to which as yet she has no clue. She inquires. *'For whom do you sigh ? I am jealous of sighs. They do not o^me, for sisters as deep as that one. There is anotlfer one." " No." /ames no is a lipson in spelling which so poorly represents the lesson of deceit^ that Leette places him at the foot of the class, by the instantane- ous exclamation : " You were disappointed in love ; you know you were, and enlisted to fight us, because you could not conquer yourself ! " " No — lady — I am a prisoner, and not at liberty to discuss these questions. I buried love when my country was in danger. I volunteered for the nation, the whole Union. Could you see as I do, you also would agree with me. I thank you for all your kind- ness. I wish these cruel differences were adjusted; we ought to be at peace — but, much as I think of you, while we are at war we are enemies." Changing her plan on the instant, she said, ^' Is that all ? Now James, I am going to bury the hatchet for the present. I am a rebel." " And I a good Union man." " I like y(5u the better, honest Yank. We will COTTON STEALING. 95 acrree to be foes by and by. Now, and until you are able to figbt, we must be friends. Give me your band." " So be it tben," and James gave his hand. Both were pleased. She in finding a foe worthy of her care, he in freeing his mind and standing in her presence a friendly foe. This was that anomaly, an armistice, which neither war nor peace mingled in friendly grasp hands prepared to slaughter the other. In such proximity love can, has often burst its bar- riers and mingled antagonisms in harmony. '^Now, says Leette, holding up her small beautiful fore-fin