Chance Encounters by Paul Telegdi

Author:Paul Telegdi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gold rush, adventure, kidnapping, american civil war, canal, nurses, narrowboat, transcontinental railroad, prisoner of war camp
Publisher: Paul Telegdi

By Rail

Chapter 17

Homecoming was a sad journey into the past. As soon as the train crossed into southern territory, the devastation became clear. In contrast to the thriving prewar communities, Chance saw town after town slip by his window, half destroyed, nearly deserted. The only nodes of activity had a carpetbagger stamp on it, as Northerners took over more productive local businesses and industries.

At every stop, there were gaunt figures in vestiges of Confederate uniforms, ghosts of armies past, grim faces turned toward the train, waiting for relatives to come back from a lost war. No women or children were visible in this new world.

Separated into a country of their own were also groups of blacks, just loitering, with nothing to do. They were sullen, the whites of their eyes flashing with suspicion. It seemed that the new order didn’t bring them much satisfaction.

“You a southern boy?” a well dressed, well fed man opposite Chance, asked.

“From Europe,” Chance deflected the question.

“Here’s not a nice place to visit right now.” The man, however, seemed satisfied with what he had found. A northerner from Boston and a civilian who had never experienced the hardships and horrors of war. Perhaps he was an administrator going to his new assignment, or one of the carpetbaggers who sought to profit from the South’s misfortunes. The military governments that ran the conquered states would only do business with connected Northerners. His smug attitude seemed out of place here on this train, full of soldiers returning home. Chance closed his eyes to block him out.

When the train stopped at a small town, Chance got off to stretch his legs. The place had survived the war more or less intact except for a row of burned out warehouses near the track.

“The Union...?” Chance asked the stationmaster standing on the platform.

The man frowned and spat on the track. “No, our mayor. To keep the cotton out of Union hands.” Chance was saddened, the harvest of the war years burned. Cotton that could have been used to rebuild, now gone.

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