The Greenwood Legacy by Jacquelyn Cook

Author:Jacquelyn Cook [Cook, Jacquelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks Inc.

On an April afternoon as Thomas and Tommy were leaving for town with a wagon to bring back supplies, Lavinia ran after them, calling, “Be sure to check if the stage has come in. I’m hoping for a letter from Harriet. I haven’t heard from her in ages.”

Tommy grinned. “Maybe she thinks she’s too good to write since the records were published showing she led the county with two hundred thirty-five bales of cotton and five thousand bushels of sweet potatoes.”

Lavinia’s laughter pealed. “She beat all you men and never let her pretty hair get out of place.”

Thomas chuckled and threw her a kiss. He wanted to get away without Lavinia. I wish I could shield her from the events that are shaking the world outside Greenwood.

He slumped on the wagon seat and admitted to himself that Lavinia had surprised him. It had not upset her that trouble began from the moment of Lincoln’s fall election. Florida had moved to seize its forts on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Pensacola, with its deep harbor, was the largest town along Florida’s twelve-hundred-mile coastline. The federal forts there were claimed by quickly organized Florida troops who forced out the Union soldiers. The federals retreated into Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island in the bay. There, Lieutenant Adam Slemmer held out, refusing to surrender to Florida. Meanwhile, the same standoff occurred in South Carolina at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. All winter the situation had simmered, waiting to boil over.

Lavinia had blithely argued that, of course, states should control what was within their borders instead of some foreign power. Thomas had said little. The question was too important. The South holding its forts and keeping its seaports open was vital.

Still lost in worries, he sat up in surprise when he realized that Tommy had driven into Thomasville and stopped the wagon at McKinnon’s store. The streets were strangely deserted. Panic seized him to know what was happening beyond the isolated Pine Barrens. Leaving Tommy at the general store to fill the order, he hurried to the newspaper office.

As Thomas read the Southern Enterprise, his hands shook. It stated that after Lincoln’s March inauguration, his first presidential act was to send reinforcements to Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter. The weekly paper, dated April 3, 1861, was six days old. Thomas agonized to know what was happening now. Feeling sick with apprehension, he thought, Lincoln realizes he’s forcing a crisis.

He threw away the newspaper before he rejoined Tommy. He found him and the storekeeper wrestling a barrel into the wagon.

A mournful sound floated down the street, and Tommy dropped the barrel on his toe, yelling, “What’s that?”

The clerk snorted a laugh. “Country boy, you just heard a train whistle.” He stuck his thumbs in his suspenders and boasted, “This here town’s fixing to be somebody, for shore. When that train comes in, we’re throwing a barbecue. The train is bringing ice from up north. Now everybody can have ice for lemonade instead of just a little piece for the saloon like comes in the boot of the stagecoach.

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