No Good Like It Is by McKendree R Long Iii

Author:McKendree R Long Iii [Long, McKendree R Iii]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western
ISBN: 9781450580786
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2010-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

“Why do you do it, then?”

“It’s all I know, Billy. I don’t know anything else.”

***

In the cabin, William Clark was having his first real coffee in two years. He nodded to Dobey as he got a cup and said, “Your sargint tole me y’all was at Fort Pillow.”

“We were. I was just telling Billy about it.”

“He tole me more’n that. Said a lot of them niggers was drunk, and wouldn’t quit fighting you boys.”

“True. And some of our boys were drunk too. But a lot of Yankees, white and black, that did quit, surrendered, hands up, wounded, laying on the ground, they were killed too.”

“The sargint here says not ever’ body was killing the prisoners. That you and him and others, mostly Texans, was trying to stop it. Even ol’ Forrest hisself.”

“Yes. Probably less than 200 men out of 3,000 that were doing the killing, but they killed over 200 men who had quit.”

Jimmy added, “The captain shot one drunken mean son of a bitch who shot two wounded contraband in the hospital. I’m sorry, Miz Clark. But that son of a bitch had a friend who come at the captain’s back with a knife, and I killed him. I’m sorry again.”

Mrs. Clark nodded as if she heard that language every day, but she blushed blood red.

“It wasn’t like a whole bunch of good men just went bad,” said Dobey. “They were less than a tenth of us. They were mean or drunk or both, but there are always men like that. Not just soldiers. You must have seen some in Texas.”

William nodded. “Yep. I said we din’t shoot no Messican prisoners, but they was some men shooting Messicans in the lake. They couldn’t swim, and they couldn’t come out. Ol’ Sam had to slap some of our’n with his sword to stop ‘em. I hit one Tennessee man with the flat of my hatchet to stop him. That’s why they made me a corporal.”

***

Mr. Clark begged them to stay. When they passed on the invitation, his wife gave them a sack of cornbread, fatback, and sliced ham. Both men slipped Billy a few coins, pulled on their ponchos, and rode west in a drizzling rain.

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