Part 38 (2/2)

”It's all right,” she soothed. ”Everything is going to be all right. You're okay. You're both safe.” Eventually the sound of her voice calmed them, and they were able to bring their tears under control.

”Where's your father?” Caroline asked Sally.

”H-his flour mill. He t-took the horse,” she stammered.

Caroline knew that his mill had been on fire for some time. She feared for his safety, but she kept her thoughts to herself. ”I've come to take you home with me. It's safer up on Church Hill. The fires aren't spreading that way.”

”But we can't go out there,” Mrs. St. John wept. ”The Yankees are bombarding us.”

”No, they're not,” she said gently, rubbing the older woman's shoulder. ”Those explosions are from the Confederates. They're burning their own a.r.s.enals and ammunition dumps. Come with me, please. I'll take you to where it's safe.”

”W-what about my father?” Sally asked.

He never should have left you here all alone, she wanted to say. But she didn't. ”We can leave him a note and tell him where you are. If he has a horse, he'll find us.” she wanted to say. But she didn't. ”We can leave him a note and tell him where you are. If he has a horse, he'll find us.”

She finally convinced them to leave, each bringing a bundle of valuables with them. Caroline scavenged in the kitchen while they packed, finding a small bag of flour and a little bacon. Then she soaked four towels in water so they could cover their mouths, and led the two frightened women out to the carriage house where Gilbert was waiting. She was eager to leave before they changed their minds.

Caroline felt more accustomed to the roar of the flames and the sound of bursting sh.e.l.ls her second time out, but the other two women cowered on the carriage seat and whimpered in terror. The buggy would only hold the three women, so Gilbert walked beside the horse, leading her by the bridle. As they slowly made their way back toward Capitol Square, a new sight made Caroline suddenly go cold with fear, even though the air around her felt nearly as hot as a furnace.

Yankees.

The United States Cavalry had already arrived in the square, followed by long, unending lines of blue-coated soldiers, tramping down the hill into the city. Hundreds of those soldiers were Negroes. The Stars and Stripes already flew from the roof of the capitol building again, and a band had begun to play the ”Star Spangled Banner.” Crowds of Richmond's former slaves lined the streets to cheer the conquerors. It was like a scene from a nightmare, Caroline thought, to hear gaiety and celebration in the midst of burning and horror.

Gilbert deftly avoided the marching soldiers and spreading fire, weaving his way down side streets until they were climbing Church Hill once again. An hour later they were home, safely inside, away from the smoke and the fear and the roar of the flames.

Caroline continued to console the two women, holding them in her arms, talking with them, praying with them. Esther brought them a little warm soup to eat. Late that afternoon, when Sally and her mother were fed and comforted, Caroline put them to bed in her mother's room.

As evening fell, a pall of black smoke hid the setting sun. In the distance, sh.e.l.ls continued to explode at the a.r.s.enal and at the Tredegar Iron Works, now in flames as well. But the Yankees had worked hard all afternoon, putting out most of the fires. They had stopped it from spreading to the rest of the city. Eli locked and bolted the doors as Caroline and her servants prepared to spend another night in the drawing room.

It was only then, after the day's harrowing events were far behind her, that Caroline fully realized what she had seen that morning. She leaped up from the sofa, startling all of her servants. ”The Yankees are here!” she said. ”They were flying the American flag.”

”Yes, Missy,” Eli said. ”We know. Gilbert told us.”

”But that means you're all free. Finally! You aren't slaves anymore. You're free men and women-all of you.”

Eli broke into a wide grin. ”We know that, too, Missy. We knowing it all day, now.”

”Well, for goodness' sakes, why aren't you celebrating?” Caroline began grabbing them, one after the other, and hugging them-even Gilbert.

Eli squeezed her hard in return. ”Didn't seem right for us to celebrate, seeing as you and the other women losing so much.”

”You don't have to feel that way,” Caroline said. ”Come on, let's dance . . . laugh . . . sing! This is the most wonderful day of your life! You're free!”

She tried to pull Gilbert to his feet, but he shook his head, smiling shyly. ”If you don't mind, Missy, I think we all like to celebrate by getting a good night's sleep.”

”Amen,” Esther said. ”Besides, it don't feel any different being free than it did when I ain't free.”

”That's because you always love us, Missy,” Tessie said. ”We ain't never been slaves in your eyes.”

”Or in G.o.d's eyes, either,” Eli said. ”Best way to celebrate is to thank Ma.s.sa Jesus for what He done.” Caroline heard the powerful emotions in his voice. ”It was the Lord's mighty hand that delivered us out of slavery,” he said, ”with Missy Caroline helping Him. Don't any of you ever forget that. Make sure you tell little Isaac and all our other children and grandchildren. Pa.s.s it down through all generations. It was the Lord G.o.d who hear our groaning. He's the One who set us free. And the Bible says that if the Son make us free, we be free indeed. And I say, Thank you, Ma.s.sa Jesus! Amen!”

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For the second morning in a row, Caroline was jolted awake at dawn, this time by someone pounding on her front door. Gilbert ran to open it. A moment later she heard Mr. St. John shouting, ”Where are they? What have you done with my wife and daughter?”

Caroline hurried into the foyer. Soot smudged Mr. St. John's face and hands. His charred clothes reeked of smoke. He was coughing, wheezing, but when he saw her, he began shouting louder still. ”What kind of chicanery are you trying to pull, stealing my family away from me this way? Your little deceptions won't work anymore. We know what you are-”

”Daddy, stop,” Sally cried out from the top of the stairs. ”Caroline hasn't done anything wrong. She helped Mother and me.”

”Helped you! Get down here. Both of you. I'm taking you home.”

”We were terrified yesterday, Daddy,” Sally said as she helped her mother down the stairs. ”You left us, and the servants all ran off, and we thought we were going to die. If Caroline hadn't come and brought us here where it was safe, I don't know what we would have done.”

”Get in the carriage,” he said coldly. Mr. St. John opened the front door himself and pointed toward the street. Caroline saw his carriage parked at the curb, but it was without a driver.

”Did you even hear a word that Sally just said?” Mrs. St. John asked him.

He glared at her. ”Our mill burned to the ground yesterday. You can thank Caroline and her Yankee friends for that. Now get in the carriage.”

They started to leave, but before she reached the door, Sally turned and ran back to take Caroline in her arms. ”Thank you,” she whispered as she held her tightly. ”I'll never forget what you did for us yesterday.”

Morning revealed that most of the fires were out. Caroline and Gilbert drove downtown to see what was left of Richmond.

Fifty-four city blocks lay in charred ruins. Nearly the entire business district was gone. More than nine hundred homes and businesses. Nothing remained except skeletal brick walls, or maybe a blackened fireplace and chimney rising from the smoking debris. In some places, the rubble of fallen bricks was piled so high it blocked the streets. The town didn't even look like Richmond.

The enemy's occupying forces had moved into President Davis' Confederate White House. Everywhere that Caroline and Gilbert looked, on every street corner and city block, she saw armed soldiers dressed in blue standing guard. They drove past Capitol Square, where hundreds of Yankee horses grazed, and Caroline remembered sitting on a bench in that square beside Charles the night Virginia had seceded. Four years ago this month, the city had celebrated the birth of the Confederacy. But Charles had looked at her that night, his eyes filled with sorrow, and said, ”You deserve to know the truth . . . I don't think we can possibly win this war.” ”You deserve to know the truth . . . I don't think we can possibly win this war.”

If Charles had known just how much he would lose-not only the war itself, but his city, his livelihood, thousands of his fellow soldiers, and worst of all, their love, their future-would he still have fought? If she had known that fighting to abolish slavery would have cost her Charles' love, would she still have done it?

Her questions had no answers. It was useless to ask them, as useless as trying to pick up the fallen bricks from among the rubble to put the city back together again. It couldn't be done. ”Trust that everything you done for G.o.d and everything you gave up for Him has a purpose,” ”Trust that everything you done for G.o.d and everything you gave up for Him has a purpose,” Eli had said. Eli had said. ”G.o.d will give it all meaning in the end.” ”G.o.d will give it all meaning in the end.” Caroline could only pray that it would be so. Caroline could only pray that it would be so.

When she could no longer stand the sight of her beloved city, she asked Gilbert to take her home.

That day, April 4, President Lincoln arrived to tour the vanquished city. Eli and Gilbert took all of the other servants down to Capitol Square to cheer for the president who had purchased their freedom. Even baby Isaac got a glimpse of the man the Negroes hailed as their Moses.

Not quite a week after Richmond fell, General Lee and his exhausted troops surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. Charles laid down his rifle for the last time in bitter defeat. He and the friends he had fought and starved beside for four long years would finally go home. But when Charles arrived in Richmond, it was to a house of mourning. His father had died on April 9, the day Lee surrendered.

One week after the surrender at Appomattox, Josiah walked through the kitchen door as Caroline and the others were eating their dinner. Between the three of them, Tessie, Eli, and Esther, they hugged Josiah so hard they nearly knocked him to the ground.

”Ain't no one ever gonna make us be apart again,” Tessie cried. ”We're free!”

But their joyful reunion was tempered with sorrow as Eli told his son the news: ”President Lincoln, the man who set us free, died today from an a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet.”

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