HOPE DEFERRED
It is not necessary to enter into the details of that trip, which was
devoid of unusual incidents. In due time the unfortunate family reached
their destination, where they were affectionately received by the
Coltons and taken into their home. Since the dark days at the beginning
of the war the Coltons had been obliged to give up their pleasant home
on Morgan Street, in what was then one of the most desirable residence
districts of the city, and had moved into a smaller house on Palm
Street, far up on the North Side and not many blocks from the St. Louis
Fair Grounds. Mr. Colton had succeeded in weathering his reverses and
still had his business, that of real estate, downtown; but it was in a
far from prosperous condition, and his income was hardly sufficient to
support him and his family, consisting of his wife and two small
children. He had had the misfortune, when a young man, to lose his left
arm at the elbow so that he was handicapped in the battle of life; but
he made up in mental capacity what he lacked in physical, so he had
always been able, until the beginning of the war, to make a comfortable
living.
On the second evening after their arrival in St. Louis, when supper was
over, Mr. Colton asked Al to take a walk with him. They strolled west
across the open lots and along the thinly populated streets lying in the
direction of the Fair Grounds. Mr. Colton seemed rather abstracted and
talked but little; and presently Al asked, abruptly,
"Uncle Will, your business isn't paying very well just now, is it?"
"Well, no, it isn't, Al," Mr. Colton replied, apparently a little
startled by the question. "Why?"
"I have been thinking ever since we got here," Al answered, "that our
coming to you as we have, without money or anything else, will add a
great deal to your expenses and other troubles. Of course I look forward
to repaying you in the future, so far as money can repay such kindness;
but that won't help just now, and I wish I could find some work to do
right away, so that I could earn enough to pay part of the living
expenses of Mother and Annie and myself."
Mr. Colton laid his hand affectionately on Al's shoulder.
"My boy," said he, "you are your father's true son. That is just what he
would have been thinking of in similar circumstances. I am glad you have
spoken of it, Al, for it is just that problem which has been troubling
me ever since you and your dear mother and little sister came. You know
how thankful I should be if I could provide you all with everything you
need and have no question of means enter into the matter."
"Yes, I do know, Uncle Will," said Al, earnestly.
Mr. Colton went on, "I should like to make your poor mother and Annie as
comfortable and easy in every way as possible and I should like to have
you continue with school until you are ready to take up your chosen
profession. But I do not see how I can compass these desires at present,
though perhaps I can later. I was just going to suggest that it would
probably be necessary for you to get employment for a while when you
spoke of it. I am more pleased than I can say that you thought of it
first, without any suggestion."
"I don't see how any one could fail to understand the situation, sir,"
answered Al. "Do you suppose I could find a place to-morrow?"
"Quite likely. You can go down town with me in the morning, and during
the day we can call on several acquaintances of mine, some one of whom
may be able to give you as good a position as you can well fill to begin
with."
Accordingly, quite early next morning they started for the business
district. Mr. Colton's office was more than two miles from his home and
they walked to Fifth Street and there took a horse car down town. The
first place at which they called was a large wholesale grocery house
whose proprietor, Mr. White, was a personal friend of Mr. Colton. The
latter held a brief private interview with him, rapidly relating the
circumstances under which the Briscoes had come to St. Louis, and then
Al was called in. Mr. White liked him from the first, and within half
an hour he was hard at work on an upper floor of the big warehouse,
assisting one of the shipping clerks in getting down, checking, and
sending out orders of goods. Mr. White had informed him that as soon as
he was sufficiently familiar with the stock and the method of checking
it out, he would himself be promoted to a position as shipping clerk.
Though as time went on and the days lengthened into weeks, Al was
obliged to confess to himself that the business possessed few
attractions for him, yet he applied himself industriously to mastering
its details, feeling not only a sense of satisfaction in the knowledge
that he was winning his employer's confidence and approval, but a still
deeper pride in the fact that he was becoming able to bear a very
material share of the modest living expenses of himself and his mother
and sister. Although Mr. White imagined that Al's rapid progress in
familiarizing himself with his work was due to a natural aptitude for
the business, the fact was that he was simply determined to get ahead
and earn as much money as possible. A constant mental unrest, due
chiefly to his suspense over Tommy's fate, possessed him, and he tried
to soothe it as far as might be by becoming absorbed in his work. Beyond
his natural anxiety for his brother, however, though he did not exactly
realize it, was the repugnance to obligation, the unquenchable desire to
have his mother and sister independent, which was a characteristic
inherited from his sturdy father. He very soon qualified himself to take
his place as a shipping clerk, thus securing an advance in pay, which
enabled him still further to relieve his uncle's unwonted burdens.
Thus the Autumn went by and Mrs. Briscoe began to look impatiently for
news from General Sibley, for they had been able to gather something in
a fragmentary way from the St. Louis papers of the events which had
taken place in Minnesota since they had left there, and they knew that
Colonel Sibley had been made a brigadier general of volunteers for his
skilful conduct of the Indian campaign. At length one day the
long-looked-for letter came. Mr. Colton brought it out from his office,
and with palpitating hearts the family gathered around Al while he read
it aloud; for Mrs. Briscoe was too much agitated to read it. The letter
was dated at Fort Snelling and was in General Sibley's own handwriting.
It read as follows:
_Mrs. Thomas Briscoe, St. Louis, Mo._
MY DEAR MADAM: It is with the deepest regret that I am obliged to
inform you that thus far our efforts to recover your young son from
his Indian captors have been unsuccessful. Late in September we
rescued about two hundred and fifty white prisoners near the Yellow
Medicine but he was not among them. We have also captured about two
thousand of the Indian miscreants who were prominent in the late
outbreak and massacre, and they are now being tried by a court
martial. Many of them are being convicted and will be executed.
Among them, however, is no individual satisfying the description of
the captor of your son Thomas, as given to me by your elder son.
I have, however, received information which leads me to believe
that this man is a Yanktonais from the region of the Missouri
River, who is known to have been consorting with the Minnesota
Indians during the late outrages and who has since fled into Dakota
again. Indian prisoners whom I have interviewed claim that he took
with him a white boy, who, I have little doubt, is your son. The
several prisoners with whom I have conversed all agree that the
child appeared to be in good health when they saw him, though I
have been able to gather nothing further concerning him.
It is quite possible that his captor may weary of holding your son
a prisoner during the coming winter and take him into one of the
fur-trading posts along the Missouri River. But, in case this
should not happen, I may say to you that it is the present
intention of the Government to send strong expeditions against the
hostile Indians about Devil's Lake and along the Missouri, next
summer. I may be in command of one of the columns; but, whether I
am or not, I beg to assure you that no efforts will be spared to
effect the release of your son and his speedy restoration to you.
Nor is it at all probable that such a thorough campaign as is now
contemplated will fail of the desired result, for it is the
Government's purpose to pursue the Indians relentlessly until their
last prisoner is recovered, until the last savage guilty of
atrocities against the whites is given up to justice, and until the
entire Sioux Nation is brought to submission.
With renewed assurances of my deep sympathy and regret that I have
no more satisfactory news for you at the present time, I beg to
remain, my dear madam,
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. H. SIBLEY, Brig. Gen., U. S. V.
Mrs. Briscoe broke down completely on hearing this disappointing
intelligence and could not be comforted for a long time. But the
courageous spirit which had already carried her through so much finally
reasserted itself; since there was nothing to do except endure the
suspense, she resolved to endure it patiently and not depress the
spirits of those around her with her own griefs.
On his part Al felt at first that he could not bear to spend more time
in idle waiting while his brother remained a captive. It seemed to him
that he must start out and do something. But reflection showed him that
this desire, though natural, was futile. Hard as the conclusion was, it
seemed plain that the best thing was to trust General Sibley and the
soldiers with the problem, at least for the present and until the
results of the next summer's campaign could be known. Had he been old
enough to enlist, Al would undoubtedly have joined the army in spite of
everything, in order to be at the front and share in the search for his
brother. But as he would not be sixteen until the early Spring of 1863,
that was out of the question.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the place and the time in which he was
living were well calculated to develop in him the strong military
inclinations of his nature, and as the months went on he found it more
and more difficult to be satisfied with the work in which he was
engaged. There was hardly an hour of the day in which squads or
companies of troops did not pass along the busy streets of St. Louis,
and often full regiments, with bands playing and colors flying, or
batteries of artillery rumbling over the cobble-stones, marched past on
their way to the Levee to embark on steamers for the seat of war in the
South. St. Louis was the great recruiting depot of the West, and at
Benton Barracks, just beyond the Fair Grounds and only a few blocks from
the Colton home, as many as twenty thousand men were nearly always
quartered, mustering, drilling, outfitting and then marching away to
take their places in the fighting armies at the front. News of battle
was constantly in the air and the war formed the chief topic of
conversation always and everywhere. Now it was the disastrous repulse of
the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, Virginia; then the terrible
conflict at Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and then, a little later, the
capture of Fort Hindman, at Arkansas Post, Arkansas; while authentic
news and uncertain rumors of other battles, skirmishes, and military
movements circulated constantly.
Though St. Louis was a Union city by a very substantial majority there
nevertheless existed there a strong though suppressed Southern
sentiment; but Al was even less inclined to be influenced by it than
his father would have been, or than he would have been himself before
his father's death. The reason was that public opinion in the North and
West at this time held that the outbreak of the Indians in Minnesota had
been instigated and encouraged by agents from the Southern Confederacy,
who hoped, by precipitating an Indian war upon the Northwest, not only
to divert a good many Union troops from the South but even possibly to
effect a Confederate conquest of the Northwestern Territories. Happily
for the fair fame of American civilization, it has in later years been
quite clearly established that the Confederates had nothing to do with
inciting the barbarous outbreak, but at the time it was firmly believed
in the Northwest. Therefore it seems but natural that a person in Al's
position, grieving for a father murdered and a brother carried away
captive by the red fiends, should entertain bitterness toward those whom
he believed to be largely responsible for his bereavement. This feeling
but added to his interest in the military preparations of those who were
going to fight the Southerners, and increased his desire to be a
partaker in their toils and trials and triumphs.
When he found an opportunity to do so, as he did on Sunday afternoons
and his other infrequent holidays, he occasionally went down to the
river front where were to be seen the big transport steamers, starting
out loaded to the guards with troops or coming in with cargoes of sick
and wounded men, and where, also, were generally to be found one or more
of the pugnacious-looking iron-clad gunboats which had been and still
were fighting their way foot by foot down the battery-lined rivers of
the South, carrying the flag of the Union into regions where it had been
outcast for two years past. But more frequently his steps turned toward
Benton Barracks, for there on the great parade ground between the huge
barracks, each seven hundred and fifty feet in length, were always to be
found swarms of troops at drill. Here he would see a squad of four or
eight recruits receiving from a corporal instructions in the rudiments
of tactics, such as the salutes, the facings, or the manual of arms. A
little further on would be a regiment executing ponderous evolutions in
company or battalion front.
Observing all these tactical exercises with lively interest and careful
attention, Al soon began to comprehend the methods and objects of
movements which at first seemed wholly bewildering. He obtained a copy
of the "United States Infantry and Rifle Tactics," the text book then in
use for the instruction of the United States troops, and spent evening
after evening studying them until he was much more familiar with the
contents than the average volunteer soldier several years his senior.
Though he could not utilize his knowledge because of his youth, he
persisted in acquiring it, not only because he liked it but because he
felt that eventually it would be useful to him, especially if he could
ever carry out his cherished ambition of entering West Point.
One day in the Spring of 1863, Mr. White called Al into his private
office.
"The chief commissary of subsistence in this city has asked me if I
could tell him of a few good men to act as civilian clerks in his
department," said he. "They must be men who understand something of
staple groceries such as the army uses and who know how to get out
orders and ship goods. Would you like to have such a position for a
while?"
Al's eyes brightened. Such work would place him in closer touch with the
army, an object which appealed to him strongly. But he bore in mind his
obligations and answered, cautiously,
"I should like it very much, Mr. White, if you approve of it and if I
could make as much as I do now."
"The position will pay you a little more than you are getting now," said
Mr. White, leaning back in his chair as if to give plenty of time to the
discussion, "and it will give you some valuable experience if you aim to
continue in the wholesale grocery business. The commissary department is
handling enormous quantities of goods in St. Louis now and an insight
into the Government's methods of transacting such a volume of business
will be a great benefit to you. Of course, whenever you want to leave
the Government's employ and come back here, your position will be open
for you. You are very young for such a place but you have made such
rapid progress and learned to do your work so well and thoroughly that I
shall have no hesitation in recommending you as one of my best
employees."
"Thank you, sir," said Al, flushing with pleasure. "I hope I deserve
it."
"You understand," Mr. White continued, "I don't want you to leave me;
but I owe it to the Union to give her the best I have when she asks it.
I am past middle age myself and I don't think I am worth enough as a
soldier to volunteer yet; there are plenty of younger and stronger men
still pouring in to fill up the armies. But if the war drags on and the
time comes that I feel she needs my actual, physical services, I shall
go. Meantime, as I say, I shall give her the best I have in other ways,
and you are part of that best. Though you are not old enough to be a
soldier, I know you will appreciate that your work as a civilian
employee may be quite as valuable to the Government as though you were
enlisted in the service."
"Indeed I do, Mr. White," answered Al, "and I shall do my best to serve
the Union faithfully."
In the new work upon which he entered next day Al continued throughout
that momentous Summer and Fall. Though serving in a capacity both humble
and obscure, he had his part in preparing and forwarding the supplies
which enabled General Grant to cut loose from his base, swing his army
around to the rear of Vicksburg, and two months later to capture that
Gibraltar of the Mississippi with all its garrison and munitions of war.
He helped to make ready the subsistence carried by Grant's and Sherman's
armies when they went to the relief of Chattanooga; and from the depots
where he worked a constant stream of stores was always going forward to
the thousands of Union troops scattered in fortified posts and
encampments or marching hither and thither all over the Southwest
fighting innumerable minor battles and skirmishes. But his daily
occupation was very prosaic and needs no more than casual mention.
At length, when Autumn came again, another letter was received from
General Sibley. It was as disappointing as the one of the year before.
He told briefly of the long Summer's campaign in which he had marched
westward from the Minnesota River to the Missouri, defeating the Indians
in three pitched battles and driving them across the Missouri, and of
the later advance of another column up the valley of the Missouri, under
General Alfred Sully, which had also encountered and defeated the
Indians. But neither column had rescued Tommy, though they had heard
rumors of his whereabouts and had gained a little new information
concerning his captor.
The latter, it now seemed clearly established, was an Upper Yanktonais
warrior named Te-o-kun-ko, or, in English, The Swift. From the
statements of hostile Indians who had talked with friendlies or had
surrendered to the troops during the campaign, it appeared that this man
had not been with the main body of the Indians during the Summer; he had
taken his family, in company with a small party of about a dozen other
lodges, over into the country along the Yellowstone and Powder Rivers,
in Idaho. They had probably spent the season in hunting and skirmishing
occasionally with the Crows, the powerful people occupying most of that
region, who were hereditary enemies of the Sioux. It must be understood
that the great Sioux Nation consists of a number of different tribes, of
which the Upper Yanktonais tribe is one, and the Lower Yanktonais
another. It seemed that he still had with him the white boy whom he had
captured in Minnesota. The lad seemed perfectly contented and was
displaying such aptitude and prowess in learning to ride, shoot, hunt,
and perform the other feats of skill, agility, and hardihood which the
Indians regard as most manly, that Te-o-kun-ko took great pride and
delight in him and was evidently trying to wean him away from any
longing for his white relatives, in the hope of eventually making him,
to all practical intents, a full-fledged Sioux warrior.
General Sibley added that in the Spring of 1864 General Sully would
almost certainly lead another expedition up the Missouri to fight the
Indians, though whether he himself would move against them again was
doubtful. He renewed his regrets that he had been unable to recapture
Tommy, and his hopes that another year would surely see him restored to
his family, and here the letter ended.
Mrs. Briscoe and Al were not only bitterly disappointed by the news; it
positively stunned them. The idea that Tommy could have been, all this
time, anything but a suffering and wretchedly unhappy prisoner, was
entirely new to them. That he could have grown not merely contented with
his lot among the savages but even attached to it, a possibility very
clearly suggested by General Sibley's letter, seemed unbelievable, at
least to Mrs. Briscoe. But Al, on reflection, was not so much inclined
to scoff at it as he had been at first. He remembered having heard of
several cases in which white boys, taken captive by Indians when so
young that their affections and habits were not deeply rooted, had
become so attached to the wild, free life of the red men that they
voluntarily renounced civilization and remained all their lives with the
people of their adoption. Then he recalled the prominent characteristics
of Tommy's disposition,--his sturdy independence, his love for being out
of doors, for handling horses and for hunting and
trapping,--inclinations which he had not shown until their removal to
Minnesota but which had developed rapidly there, where Tommy, in the
midst of a solitude which was almost wilderness, had apparently been
happier than ever before in his life. He recalled, also, the little
boy's warm-hearted affection for his parents and for himself and Annie;
a trait of character which certainly seemed the strongest argument
against the theory that Tommy could grow to forget them. But Al was
obliged to admit to himself that the other impulses of his young
brother's nature would all find gratification in the life of the plains;
while, moreover, if he were kindly treated, even his affections might be
kindled for the people with whom he was living. He had been with the
Indians now for more than a year, which is a long time in a young boy's
life.
The more he became convinced of such possibilities, the more was Al
disturbed and alarmed by them. It had been bad enough to think of his
brother as a heart-broken captive, but to think of him as perhaps a
future renegade, an apostate to his race, was far worse, for it added
shame to sorrow. He could not bear to think of his mother having to face
such a calamity. Finally he took his troubled thoughts to his uncle,
who was always kind, sympathetic and helpful.
"I have been thinking a great deal about this matter, too, Al," said Mr.
Colton. "There is no question in my mind that Tommy might take the
course you speak of, if he should remain long enough with the Indians.
From the reports we have he seems to be well and even happy. The most
important reason now for getting him away from them seems to be to
remove him from their moral influence. But, incredible as it may seem, I
really believe there may be a possibility that now; even if the soldiers
should find him, he would be unwilling to come away with them."
Al looked at his uncle and slowly nodded his head in agreement.
"Yes, I believe that might be so," he answered. "And it seems to me,
Uncle Will, for that very reason if no other, I ought to go with the
next expedition; for if Tommy should be found I know that when he saw me
and I told him about mother and all of us, he would want to come back.
But I can't go, that's all."
"Al," said Mr. Colton, "I agree with you that you ought to, and I think
probably you can. Since midsummer my business has begun to revive.
People are commencing to see that the South is getting the worst of this
war and there is a growing feeling of confidence that the Union is going
to be saved. Therefore interest is reviving in business matters of all
kinds, real estate among others. If the Union is going to be preserved,
St. Louis will continue to be a great and growing city; nobody cared to
speculate on what it would be while the success of the Confederacy
seemed probable. But, you see, I am beginning to have business again,
and if our armies continue gaining such victories as they have been
during the last six months, there will be more business by next Spring.
I wish to Heaven I could go into the service and help to hasten the end;
but this," he moved the stump of his left arm impatiently, "forever
debars me from such service. But if I can help you to go where you may
be able to assist in recovering your brother and at the same time to be
perhaps of some service to our country, even though you are not old
enough to enlist, I shall feel that I have done something. I think by
Spring I shall be able to take care of your mother and sister while you
are gone and I shall be only too glad to do it."
Al's cheeks flushed with mingled surprise and pleasure. His sense of
duty, however, was still uppermost.
"But, Uncle Will,--" he began.
"Now, that's all right, Al," interrupted Mr. Colton. "This is simply a
family matter, and you need not worry about it at all. The only question
which remains to be settled is whether it can be arranged for you to
accompany an expedition into the Indian country. If General Sibley were
going, no doubt he would be willing to find a place for you some way.
But it seems that he may not go again, and another commander, like
General Sully, for instance, may not want to have you. However, we shall
have to wait to settle that until we know more about actual plans for
next season's campaign, and that probably will not be possible until
late Winter or early Spring."
Mrs. Briscoe at first found it very hard to reconcile herself to the
plan, for she was divided between anxiety for Tommy and apprehension
lest harm should befall Al if he went in search of his brother. But by
pointing out to her that it was still uncertain whether the commander of
the expedition would permit him to go at all, Al, shrewdly aided by his
uncle, induced her to give the subject calm consideration, being
convinced that if she did so she would in time see that it was best. So
the Winter passed with little further discussion of the subject. Al
continued at his work, Annie was attending school, and Mrs. Briscoe
aided her sister with the duties of the household. Indeed, the refugees
from Minnesota seemed to have become fixtures in the Colton home, and,
though all of them thought occasionally of their returning some time to
the abandoned claim above Fort Ridgely, the time for doing so remained
in the indefinite future. None of them could feel like attempting to
resume the even tenor of their lives until Tommy should have been
brought back from his captivity.