WITH DAN AT CHARLOTTESVILLE
Milicent always came as a soul comes.
The day after we got the batch of letters the door opened softly, and
there she stood, holding Bobby by the hand. She had come so quietly
that we did not know it until she stood in our midst. But Bobby was a
veritable piece of flesh and blood. As soon as he saw it was grandma
and auntie, he made a bound for us, and overwhelmed us with his noisy
and affectionate greetings, while his mother submitted to being loved
and kissed, and in her quiet way loved and kissed back again. Then she
told us how she had come from Norfolk to Petersburg. It was a long,
dreary trip.
“I went on a flag-of-truce train to Suffolk. Dr. Wright’s family were
on the train, and I spent the night with them. Bobby burned his throat
at supper by swallowing tea too hot for him, and he did not rest
well in the early part of the night and slept late the next day, and
I was very anxious about him. This, and the difficulty in getting a
conveyance, kept me at Dr. Wright’s until the afternoon. By that time
I had secured a mule-cart to take me to Ivor Station, on the Norfolk
and Petersburg Railroad. Ivor, you know, is not more than twenty-five
miles from Suffolk by the direct route, but the route we had to take
for safety, as far as the Yankees and mud were concerned, was longer,
and our one mule went slowly.
“The first afternoon we traveled till late in the night. Bobby would
insist on driving the mule, and the driver humored him. In spite of
the pain in his throat, he stood up against my knee and held the lines
until, poor little tired fellow! he went to sleep holding them. I drew
him on to my lap, covered him up, and we went on, the old negro, old
mule, and baby all asleep. At last we stopped at a farmhouse to feed
the mule. The woman who lived there asked me in. I laid Bobby down on
her bed, dropped across it, and in five minutes was asleep myself. I
don’t know how many other people slept in that bed that night, but I
know that the old woman, Bobby, and I slept in it. When I woke up it
was several hours after daylight. Our breakfast the next morning was
a typical Confederate breakfast. My hostess gave me a drink made of
parched wheat and corn which had been ground, a glass of milk, and some
corn bread and bacon, and I enjoyed the meal and paid her cheerfully.
“We reached Ivor late that afternoon, my driver got his fee and
departed, and Bobby and I were left to wait for the train. But we were
not the only persons at the station; two other women were waiting at
Ivor. If those two women could have had their way there would never
have been another sunset on this earth. Their two sons were to be shot
at sundown--they were watching for the sun to go down. Up and down,
up and down, they walked in front of a tent where their sons under
military guard awaited execution, and as they walked their eyes, swift
and haggard, shifted from tent to sky and back again from sky to tent.
As my train moved out of the station I glanced back. They were walking
with feverish haste, and the sun hung low in the heavens.”
“Hush, hush!” I cried, “I can’t stand another word--I shall dream of
those women all night. Tell me how you got here at last!”
“When I reached Pocahontas I meant to go to Jarrett’s, and stop until
I could find out where you were, but while I was looking around for a
carriage who should I come upon but John, our old hackman. He told me
that you were both out here at Uncle William’s, and I made him drive me
out.”
Soon after my sister’s arrival we moved into town and boarded at Miss
Anne Walker’s, an old historic house then facing Washington Street,
which runs east and west, paralleling the railroad at Jarrett’s
Hotel--or rather where Jarrett’s used to stand--an ugly old hotel
in the heart of the town. It was beside this railroad that I ran
bareheaded along Washington Street some months later to get out of the
way of the Yankee cannon. I was at Miss Anne’s when Dan gave me leave
to visit him at Charlottesville. His headquarters was a small cottage
in sight of the university and of my window. He came home every
night--home was a student’s room in the university--and very often I
went with him in the morning to his cottage.
One morning as I sat in the cottage, turning a pair of Dan’s old
trousers, the door opened, and a fine-looking cavalry officer entered.
Surprised to find a lady in occupation, he lifted his hat and started
to withdraw. Then he hesitated, regarding me in a confused, doubtful
fashion. Whereupon I in my turn began to stare at him.
“Isn’t this John--John Mason?” I asked suddenly.
“That is my name,” with a sweeping bow. “And are you not my old friend,
Miss Nellie Duncan, of Norfolk?”
“Yes,” I answered smiling, “but you know I have a third name now.”
“Of course. Unpleasant facts are always hard to remember. I heard of
your marriage, certainly, but for the moment the remembrance of it
escaped me. You are here with the major?”
The last time I had seen John was on that day which closed the chapter
of my happy girlhood in Norfolk. He had been with me when the telegram
came telling us that father could not live, and from that day to this I
had never seen him until he surprised me patching Dan’s old trousers in
the cottage at Charlottesville.
He took the chair opposite, and began talking about the work I was
doing and the evidence it bore to my being a good wife. But so far
from being pleased I was very much mortified, for the old trousers
were in a dreadful state of wear and tear, and he was resplendent in a
new uniform. But after a while we dropped the trousers, and got on the
subject of Norfolk and old times, and had quite a pleasant chat till my
husband came in and he and John turned their attention to business.
I was seeing more of my husband than at any previous or later period of
the war, and having altogether a delightful time. One of the things I
enjoyed most were our horseback rides.
Dan had two horses for his own use--Tom Hodges, his old army horse,
and Nellie Grey, a fine new mare that he had christened for me. When
his horse was shot under him in that charge which has been mentioned
before, the people of his native town had sent him Nellie Grey in its
stead. Nellie was a beautiful creature, docile but very spirited, and
I was not often trusted to ride her unless Dan himself was along. Tom
Hodges was not so handsome, but he was a horse of decorous ideas and
steadfast principles.
I remember well my first ride on Nellie Grey. I had the reputation
of being an excellent horsewoman, and Dan wanted to show me off. He
was inordinately proud of me, to my great delight, but I could have
dispensed with the form his vanity took on that day.
As we rode in an easy canter down University Avenue he gave Nellie
Grey a cut, without my knowledge, that sent her off like the wind in a
regular cavalry gallop.
Well, I kept my seat--somehow--and I brought her to her senses and a
standstill, and then I looked back to see Dan beaming with pride and
pleasure.
“What is the matter with this horse?” I asked. “She’s a fool!”
Then Dan told me of that secret cut.
“I knew just what she would do,” he said, “and I knew what you’d do. I
wanted to show the boys over there what pluck my wife’s got.”
“Dan,” I said solemnly, “it’s not Nellie Grey that’s the fool.”
I was breathless and vexed, and I had to use the strongest language at
my command to express my opinion of Nellie Grey, but it wasn’t strong
enough to express my feelings toward Dan! I simply had to look my
thoughts!
“You see, wifie,” he went on apologetically, “you did look so pretty
and plucky that you ought to have seen yourself.”
Sam had gone home on a furlough, and in his place Dan had a very
magnificent body-servant named Napoleon Bonaparte, and an under-boy
named Solomon. Napoleon Bonaparte brushed the major’s boots, and
Solomon brushed Napoleon’s. Napoleon Bonaparte was a bright mulatto,
Solomon was as black as tar. It was Napoleon Bonaparte’s business
to supply my room with wood, but this task he delegated to Solomon.
Whatever menial work the major ordered Napoleon Bonaparte to do,
Napoleon turned over to Solomon. “Solomon,” he said, “was nothin’ but
a free nigger nohow.” It came to pass finally that Solomon, ostensibly
hired to one master, in reality served two. Of course, Napoleon
Bonaparte feathered his own nest and worked things so that the major
was really paying two men to do the work of one. When the major could
not ride with me, he sent Napoleon Bonaparte to act as groom. This
Napoleon Bonaparte esteemed an honor, and he only appointed Solomon
in his stead when he himself was in demand as equerry for the major.
Napoleon always elected to follow the major in such case, as that was
higher employment in his eyes than riding behind me. One morning I
stood waiting in my habit a long time for the horses. At last when
they appeared Solomon came on a sorry mount, leading Tom Hodges. The
procession moved at a snail’s pace, and Solomon looked dreadfully glum.
“What makes you so late?” I asked impatiently.
“Dunno ’zackly, marm. Evvybody in de camp got de debbul in ’em. Major,
he got de debbul in him! ’Poleon Bonaparte, he got de debbul in _him_.
An’ evvybody got de debbul in ’em!”
“There seem to have been a great many devils in camp. Wasn’t there one
to spare for you, Solomon?”
“Nor’m, I ain’t had no debbul in me--me an’ Tom Hodges. We’s been de
onliest peaceable people in camp. Ef I hadn’t er kep’ de peace, me an’
’Poleon Bonaparte would ha’ fit, sho!”
“I should think you would like to fight Napoleon--I should, if I were
you.”
“Nor’m, I don’ b’lieve in no fightin’--’cep’in’ ’tis ter fit de
Yankees. I’m er peaceable man, I is.”
I told Dan what a bad report Solomon had made out against him.
He laughed. “Solomon has the grumps this morning. He seemed to have
quite a time with your namesake, as well as with the rest of us.
Napoleon Bonaparte sent him to rub Nellie Grey down and saddle her for
me. The mare threw her head up and jerked him about a little, and we
could hear him saying: ‘Whoa! Nellie Grey, whoa! You got de debbul in
_you_ too! Who-a, Nellie Grey!’ Between the two of them I am having
rather a hard time lately,” said Dan. “Solomon blames ’Poleon Bonaparte
directly for all the hard times he has, and me indirectly. If something
isn’t done as it should be, and I take Napoleon to task, he lays it
thick and hard on Solomon. Solomon did have a time of it at camp this
morning. You see, ’Poleon Bonaparte is very particular about the way
the horses are kept, but he makes Solomon do all the rubbing down, and
Solomon doesn’t understand how to manage horses and is a little afraid
of them. ’Poleon Bonaparte found fault with his job this morning, and
made him rub Nellie Grey down twice. It naturally occurred to Nellie
that so much rubbing meant an opportunity for playing. Black Solomon
really was the good angel at camp, for before he and Nellie Grey got us
to laughing, swearing had been thick enough to cut with a knife. I had
turned loose on ’Poleon, and ’Poleon had turned loose on Solomon.”
“Dan, what _makes_ you keep them both?”
“Keep them both! I don’t. I don’t want either of them, but I can’t get
rid of them.”
“Make Napoleon do his work and send Solomon off.”
“Make! Nell, how you talk! And ’Poleon’s got just as much right to hire
a nigger as I have to own one.”
And during our stay in Charlottesville Dan’s servants gave him “more
trouble,” he said, “than fighting the Yankees.” But it was a very happy
time in my life.
The late springtime of ’64 found me again in Petersburg.
More vacant chairs, more broken hearts, more suffering, and starvation
nearer at hand was what I found there. Milicent was spending her time
in nursing the sick and wounded in the hospital, and winning from them
the name that has clung to her ever since. There are old white-haired
men in the South who still call her “Madonna.”