THE CLOUD AND THE FIRE by BOSTON TERAN

Author:BOSTON TERAN [Teran, Boston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781567030624
Publisher: HIGH-TOP PUBLISHING
Published: 2013-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

In the half light of the cabin, Ed, who had kept on drinking, said to Matthew. “You want to know how I became who I am now… it affects you directly, Matthew. So be warned.”

I don’t see how I can’t know… now.”

Resigned, Ed began, “When your brother and I left Philadelphia with the 4th Artillery for Mexico we were much the same kind of simpleton as you. Bound up with flag and honor. It took the march across that hell they’d christened Texas to start to change all that. We faced lack of water and heat you couldn’t imagine. We faced hunger. We faced typhus and dysentery. We watched men die every mile. And there were beatin’s. Beatin’s for any minor infraction of the law.

“By the time we reached Fort Brown and began the campaign against Matamoros, we saw how war really was. No honorable cause, Matthew. Nothin’ as stirrin’ as those essays in your notebook. It was about our killin’ off the nativism of a country. It was about our killin’ off their Catholic ideas. The hatred in our ranks for their religion was rampant, except for the Irish troops, who themselves were in conflict. And you should have seen how our own officers went after them.

“And we didn’t just kill troops. We killed lepers. We killed peasants in filthy rags. We killed peon mendicants. We killed mestizos who stared down the face of our muskets with sticks and shields. And we killed ‘em for one reason. They took up the road.”

Ed did not look to see if Matthew was shocked by what he had so far heard. “You don’t know how confused we became. Half our officers brought their own slaves. Baggage trains of ‘em. Slaves who would have been better served fighting with the Mexicans.”

“Protests began in the ranks. Especially the Irish who were Catholic. I can’t tell you how many were beatin for their protests. Pamphlets against the war began to circulate. One the officers particularly hated was called ‘Civil Disobedience’ written by that man Thoreau.

“We’d had our share of desertions crossing Texas, but at the border, it was like a fever. General Taylor set up sentries along the Rio Grande with orders to shoot any man who crossed. And they did.

“Once a Corporal in the company was caught by our Lieutenant with a copy of ‘Civil Disobedience.’ The Corporal was Irish and the Lieutenant was a well known mick hater and he ordered Charlie to flog him. Charlie wouldn’t do it as he was still of a belief we had the right to read what we liked. So the Lieutenant ordered him stripped and gagged for three days. Matthew, you have no idea what a punishment like that is, survivin’ in the scorched Texas sun.

“After that, our decision was made. We’d seen enough. Charlie and I bought some clothes from a peddler, and we stripped off our uniforms and swam the Rio Grande. We deserted, Matthew.”

Here Ed paused, then, uncertain voiced, he went on. “But that wasn’t the end of it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.