Generations of Women Warriors: Battle of Pea Ridge, American Civil War by Mairsile Leabhair

Author:Mairsile Leabhair [Leabhair, Mairsile]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-07-30T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

No One’s Master

13 January, 1862

Gawddamit! I think I’m lost. After six hours of walking the direction most folks thought Billy Wayne had gone in, I realized, I didn’t know where I was. Pa taught me how to find my way by using the moss on a tree, or a star in the night sky. But he couldn’t teach me how to get my head out of my ass, and pay attention to what I was a doing.

I was too easily distracted by the sights and sounds of the path I was on, to notice whether that path was leading me where I wanted to go. Like a dog chasing a rabbit, I chased after squirrels, or tried to keep up with the eagles flight, or ran away from the skunk’s smell.

So there I stood, in a quandary, fighting back my tears of foolishness, and looking around, trying to decide what to do next. I had gotten a late start and it was already dark, so the safest thing was to find a place to hide for the night. Billy Wayne had at least eight hours on me, but I was pretty sure, he would be bedding down for the night, mostly out of fear of the darkness. I decided it was best to keep walking for a couple more hours, hoping I’d figure out where I was at, along the way, and make up some time.

I found a road with fresh wagon wheel ruts, so I followed it from the safety of the tree line. I trailed the road for quite a while, until I heard the clanging of water canteens. Then, as the sound got closer, I could hear shuffling feet. I ran for cover, further back into the forest, and watched. Yankees! What was they doing this far south? That couldn’t be right. Maybe I walked further than I thought. I crept closer and saw that it wasn’t northerners, it was a band of renegades, loaded for bear. Those men were more dangerous than the meanest Yankee ever hoped to be. They was who my Pa had warned me about. They were turncoats from both sides of the division, who had no fear of God or man.

I held my breath and slunk back as best I could, into the Blackjack trees, so’s I could wait for them to pass. I heard them arguing about whether to stop in Fayetteville for the night, or keep going. Fayetteville was just a mile up the road, one of them pointed out, so they decided they’d see what rabblerousing they could stir up there. Well, I reckoned, at least now, I knew where I was at. After a few minutes, when I couldn’t hear them anymore, I jumped up and headed in the opposite, parallel direction. But before I got very far, I heard a woman scream. My body wouldn’t budge. I was frozen where I stood, until panic burned up in my belly, reaching my brain, quicker than I could stop it.

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