HOPE WAS ROLLING HIGH in every Southern heart as the summer of 1863 came in. Despiteprivation and hardships, despite food speculators and kindred scourges, despite death and sicknessand suffering which had now left their mark on nearly every family, the South was again saying“One more victory and the war is over,” saying it with even more happy assurance than in thesummer before. The Yankees were proving a hard nut to crack but they were cracking at last.
Christmas of 1862 had been a happy one for Atlanta, for the whole South. The Confederacy hadscored a smashing victory at Fredericksburg and the Yankee dead and wounded were counted inthe thousands. There was universal rejoicing in that holiday season, rejoicing and thankfulness thatthe tide was turning. The army in butternut were now seasoned fighters, their generals had proventheir mettle, and everyone knew that when the campaign reopened in the spring, the Yankeeswould be crushed for good and all.
Spring came and the fighting recommenced. May came and the Confederacy won another greatvictory at Chancellorsville. The South roared with elation.
Closer at home, a Union cavalry dash into Georgia had been turned into a Confederate triumph.
Folks were still laughing and slapping each other on the back and saying: “Yes, sir! When oldNathan Bedford Forrest gets after them, they better git!” Late in April, Colonel Straight andeighteen hundred Yankee cavalry had made a surprise raid into Georgia, aiming at Rome, only alittle more than sixty miles north of Atlanta. They had ambitious plans to cut the vitally importantrailroad between Atlanta and Tennessee and then swing southward into Atlanta to destroy thefactories and the war supplies concentrated there in that key city of the Confederacy.
It was a bold stroke and it would have cost the South dearly, except for Forrest. With only one-third as many men—but what men and what riders!—he had started after them, engaged thembefore they even reached Rome, harassed them day and night and finally captured the entire force
The reached Atlanta almost simultaneously with the news of the victory atChancellorsvi(news) lle, and the town fairly rocked with exultation and with laughter. Chancellorsvillemight be a more important victory but the capture of Streight’s raiders made the Yankees positivelyridiculous.
No, sir, they’d better not fool with old Forrest,” Atlanta said gleefully as the story was told overand over.
The tide of the Confederacy’s fortune was running strong and full now, sweeping the peoplejubilantly along on its flood. True, the Yankees under Grant had been besieging Vicksburg sincethe middle of May. True, the South had suffered a sickening loss when Stonewall Jackson had beenfatally wounded at Chancellorsville. True, Georgia had lost one of her bravest and most brilliantsons when General T. R. R. Cobb had been killed at Fredericksburg. But the Yankees just couldn’tstand any more defeats like Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. They’d have to give in, and thenthis cruel war would be over.
The first days of July came and with them the rumor, later confirmed by dispatches, that Leewas marching into Pennsylvania. Lee in the enemy’s territory! Lee forcing battle! This was the last fight of the war
Atlanta was wild with excitement, pleasure and a hot thirst for vengeance. Now the Yankeeswould know what it meant to have the war carried into their own country. Now they’d know whatit meant to have fertile fields stripped, horses and cattle stolen, houses burned, old men and boysdragged off to prison and women and children turned out to starve.
Everyone knew what the Yankees had done in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.
Even small children could recite with hate and fear the horrors the Yankees had inflicted upon theconquered territory. Already Atlanta was full of refugees from east Tennessee, and the town hadheard firsthand stories from them of what suffering they had gone through. In that section, theConfederate sympathizers were in the minority and the hand of war fell heavily upon them, as itdid on all the border states, neighbor informing against neighbor and brother killing brother. Theserefugees cried out to see Pennsylvania one solid sheet of flame, and even the gentlest of old ladieswore expressions of grim pleasure.
But when the trickled back that Lee had issued orders that no private property in Pennsylvaniashouldbe(news) touched, that looting would be punished by death and that the army wouldpay for every article it requisitioned—then it needed all the reverence the General had earned tosave his popularity. Not turn the men loose in the rich storehouses of that prosperous state? Whatwas General Lee thinking of? And our boys so hungry and needing shoes and clothes and horses
A hasty note from Darcy Meade to the doctor, the only first-hand information Atlanta receivedduring those first days of July, was passed from hand to hand, with mounting indignation.
Pa, could you manage to get me a pair of boots? I’ve been barefooted for two weeks now and Idon’t see any prospects of getting another pair. If I didn’t have such big feet I could get them offdead Yankees like the other boys, but I’ve never yet found a Yankee whose feet were near as big asmine. If you can get me some, don’t mail them. Somebody would steal them on the way and Iwouldn’t blame them. Put Phil on the train and send him up with them. I’ll write you soon, wherewe’ll be. Right now I don’t know, except that we’re marching north. We’re in Maryland now andeverybody says we’re going on into Pennsylvania. …“Pa, I thought that we’d give the Yanks a taste of their own medicine but the General says No,and personally I don’t care to get shot just for the pleasure of burning some Yank’s house. Pa,today we marched through the grandest cornfields you ever saw. We don’t have corn like this downhome. Well, I must admit we did a bit of private looting in that corn, for we were all pretty hungryand what the General don’t know won’t hurt him. But that green corn didn’t do us a bit of good.
All the boys have got dysentery anyway, and that corn made it worse. It’s easier to walk with a legwound than with dysentery. Pa, do try to manage some boots for me. I’m a captain now and acaptain ought to have boots, even if be hasn’t got a new uniform or epaulets.
But the army was in Pennsylvania—that was all that mattered. One more victory and the warwould be over, and then Darcy Meade could have all the boots he wanted, and the boys wouldcome marching home and everybody would be happy again. Mrs. Meade’s eyes grew wet as shepictured her soldier son home at last, home to stay.
On the third of July, a sudden silence fell on the wires from the north, a silence that lasted till midday of the fourth when fragmentary and garbled reports began to trickle into headquarters inAtlanta. There had been hard fighting in Pennsylvania, near a little town named Gettysburg, a greatbattle with all Lee’s army massed. The news was uncertain, slow in coming, for the battle had beenfought in the enemy’s territory and the reports came first through Maryland, were relayed toRichmond and then to Atlanta.
Suspense grew and the beginnings of dread slowly crawled over the town. Nothing was so badas not knowing what was happening. Families with sons at the front prayed fervently that theirboys were not in Pennsylvania, but those who knew their relatives were in the same regiment withDarcy Meade clamped their teeth and said it was an honor for them to be in the big fight thatwould lick the Yankees for good and all.
In Aunt Pitty’s house, the three women looked into one another’s eyes with fear they could notconceal. Ashley was in Darcy’s regiment.
On the fifth came evil tidings, not from the North but from the West. Vicksburg had fallen, fallenafter a long and bitter siege, and practically all the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to NewOrleans was in the hands of the Yankees. The Confederacy had been cut in two. At any other time,the news of this disaster would have brought fear and lamentation to Atlanta. But now they couldgive little thought to Vicksburg. They were thinking of Lee in Pennsylvania, forcing battle.
Vicksburg’s loss would be no catastrophe if Lee won in the East. There lay Philadelphia, NewYork, Washington. Their capture would paralyze the North and more than cancel off the defeat onthe Mississippi.
The hours dragged by and the black shadow of calamity brooded over the town, obscuring thehot sun until people looked up startled into the sky as if incredulous that it was clear and blueinstead of murky and heavy with scudding clouds. Everywhere, women gathered in knots, huddledin groups on front porches, on sidewalks, even in the middle of the streets, telling each other thatno news is good news, trying to comfort each other, trying to present a brave appearance. Buthideous rumors that Lee was killed, the battle lost, and enormous casualty lists coming in, fled upand down the quiet streets like darting bats. Though they tried not to believe, wholeneighborhoods, swayed by panic, rushed to town, to the newspapers, to headquarters, pleading fornews, any news, even bad news.
Crowds formed at the depot, hoping for news from incoming trains, at the telegraph office, infront of the harried headquarters, before the locked doors of the newspapers. They were oddly stillcrowds, crowds that quietly grew larger and larger. There was no talking. Occasionally an oldman’s treble voice begged for news, and instead of inciting the crowd to babbling it onlyintensified the hush as they heard the oft-repeated: “Nothing on the wires yet from the Northexcept that there’s been fighting.” The fringe of women on foot and in carriages grew greater andgreater, and the heat of the close-packed bodies and dust rising from restless feet were suffocating.
The women did not speak, but their pale set faces pleaded with a mute eloquence that was louderthan wailing.
There was hardly a house in town that had not sent away a son, a brother, a father, a lover, ahusband, to this battle. They all waited to hear the news that death had come to their homes. Theyexpected death. They did not expect defeat. That thought they dismissed. Their men might be dying, even now, on the sun-parched grass of the Pennsylvania hills. Even now the Southern ranksmight be falling like grain before a hailstorm, but the Cause for which they fought could never fall.
They might be dying in thousands but, like the fruit of the dragon’s teeth, thousands of fresh menin gray and butternut with the Rebel yell on their lips would spring up from the earth to take theirplaces. Where these men would come from, no one knew. They only knew, as surely as they knewthere was a just and jealous God in Heaven, that Lee was miraculous and the Army of Virginiainvincible.
Scarlett, Melanie and Miss Pittypat sat in front of the Daily Examiner office in the carriage withthe top back, sheltered beneath their parasols. Scarlett’s hands shook so that her parasol wobbledabove her head, Pitty was so excited her nose quivered in her round face like a rabbit’s, butMelanie sat as though carved of stone, her dark eyes growing larger and larger as time went by.
She made only one remark in two hours, as she took a vial of smelling salts from her reticule andhanded it to her aunt, the only time she had ever spoken to her, in her whole life, with anything buttenderest affection.
Take this, Auntie, and use it if you feel faint. I warn you if you do faint you’ll just have to faintand let Uncle Peter take you home, for I’m not going to leave this place till I hear about—till Ihear. And I’m not going to let Scarlett leave me, either.
Scarlett had no intention of leaving, no intention of placing herself where she could not have thefirst news of Ashley. No, even if Miss Pitty died, she wouldn’t leave this spot. Somewhere, Ashleywas fighting, perhaps dying, and the newspaper office was the only place where she could learn thetruth.
She looked about the crowd, picking out friends and neighbors, Mrs. Meade with her bonnetaskew and her arm though that of fifteen-year-old Phil; the Misses McLure trying to make theirtrembling upper lips cover their buck teeth; Mrs. Elsing, erect as a Spartan mother, betraying herinner turmoil only by the straggling gray locks that hung from her chignon; and Fanny Elsingwhite as a ghost (Surely Fanny wouldn’t be so worried about her brother Hugh. Had she a realbeau at the front that no one suspected?) Mrs. Merriwether sat in her carriage patting Maybelle’shand. Maybelle looked so very pregnant it was a disgrace for her to be out in public, even if shedid have her shawl carefully draped over her. Why should she be so worried? Nobody had heardthat the Louisiana troops were in Pennsylvania. Probably her hairy little Zouave was safe inRichmond this very minute.
There was a movement on the outskirts of the crowd and those on foot gave way as Rhett Butlercarefully edged his horse toward Aunt Pitty’s carriage. Scarlett thought: He’s got courage, cominghere at this time when it wouldn’t take anything to make this mob tear him to pieces because heisn’t in uniform. As he came nearer, she thought she might be the first to rend him. How dared hesit there on that fine horse, in shining boots and handsome white linen suit so sleek and well fed,smoking an expensive cigar, when Ashley and all the other boys were fighting the Yankees,barefooted, sweltering in the heat, hungry, their bellies rotten with disease
Bitter looks were thrown at him as he came slowly through the press. Old men growled in theirbeards, and Mrs. Merriwether who feared nothing rose slightly in her carriage and said clearly
Speculator!” in a tone that made the word the foulest and most venomous of epithets. He paid noheed to anyone but raised his hat to Melly and Aunt Pitty and, riding to Scarlett’s side, leaneddown and whispered: “Don’t you think this would be the time for Dr. Meade to give us his familiarspeech about victory perching like a screaming eagle on our banners
Her nerves taut with suspense, she turned on him as swiftly as an angry cat, hot words bubblingto her lips, but he stopped them with a gesture.
I came to tell you ladies,” he said loudly, “that I have been to headquarters and the firstcasualty lists are coming in.
At these words a hum rose among those near enough to hear his remark, and the crowd surged,ready to turn and run down Whitehall Street toward headquarters.
Don’t go,” he called, rising in his saddle and holding up his hand. “The lists have been sent toboth newspapers and are now being printed. Stay where you are
Oh, Captain Butler,” cried Melly, turning to him with tears in her eyes. “How kind of you tocome and tell us! When will they be posted
They should be out any minute, Madam. The reports have been in the offices for half an hournow. The major in charge didn’t want to let that out until the printing was done, for fear the crowdwould wreck the offices trying to get news. Ah! Look
The side window of the newspaper office opened and a hand was extended, bearing a sheaf oflong narrow galley proofs, smeared with fresh ink and thick with names closely printed. The crowdfought for them, tearing the slips in half, those obtaining them trying to back out through the crowdto read, those behind pushing forward, crying: “Let me through
Hold the reins,” said Rhett shortly, swinging to the ground and tossing the bridle to UnclePeter. They saw his heavy shoulders towering above the crowd as he went through, brutallypushing and shoving. In a while he was back, with half a dozen in his hands. He tossed one toMelanie and distributed the others among the ladies in the nearest carriages, the Misses McLure,Mrs. Meade, Mrs. Merriwether, Mrs. Elsing.
Quick, Melly,” cried Scarlett, her heart in her throat, exasperation sweeping her as she saw thatMelly’s hands were shaking so that it was impossible for her to read.
Take it,” whispered Melly, and Scarlett snatched it from her. The Ws. Where were the Ws? Oh,there they were at the bottom and all smeared up. “White,” she read and her voice shook, “Wilkens... Winn ... Zebulon ... Oh, Melly, he’s not on it! He’s not on it! Oh, for God’s sake, Auntie, Melly,pick up the salts! Hold her up, Melly.
Melly, weeping openly with happiness, steadied Miss Pitty’s rolling head and held the smellingsalts under her nose. Scarlett braced the fat old lady on the other side, her heart singing with joy.
Ashley was alive. He wasn’t even wounded. How good God was to pass him by! How—She heard a low moan and, turning, saw Fanny Elsing lay her head on her mother’s bosom, sawthe casualty list flutter to the floor of the carriage, saw Mrs. Elsing’s thin lips quiver as shegathered her daughter in her arms and said quietly to the coachman: “Home. Quickly.” Scarletttook a quick glance at the lists. Hugh Elsing was not listed. Fanny must have had a beau and now he was dead. The crowd made way in sympathetic silence for the Elsings’ carriage, and after themfollowed the little wicker pony cart of the McLure girls. Miss Faith was driving, her face like arock, and for once, her teeth were covered by her lips. Miss Hope, death in her face, sat erectbeside her, holding her sister’s skirt in a tight grasp. They looked like very old women. Theiryoung brother Dallas was their darling and the only relative the maiden ladies had in the world.
Dallas was gone.
Melly! Melly!” cried Maybelle, joy in her voice, “René is safe! And Ashley, too! Oh, thankGod!” The shawl had slipped from her shoulders and her condition was most obvious but, foronce, neither she nor Mrs. Merriwether cared. “Oh, Mrs. Meade! René—” Her voice changed,swiftly, “Melly, look!—Mrs. Meade, please! Darcy isn’t
Mrs. Meade was looking down into her lap and she did not raise her head when her name wascalled, but the face of little Phil beside her was an open book that all might read.
There, there, Mother,” he said, helplessly. Mrs. Meade, looked up, meeting Melanie’s eyes.
He won’t need those boots now,” she said.
Oh, darling!” cried Melly, beginning to sob, as she shoved Aunt Pitty onto Scarlett’s shoulderand scrambled out of the carriage and toward that of the doctor’s wife.
Mother, you’ve still got me,” said Phil, in a forlorn effort at comforting the white-faced womanbeside him. “And if you’ll just let me, I’ll go kill all the Yank
Mrs. Meade clutched his arm as if she would never let it go, said “No!” in a strangled voice andseemed to choke.
Phil Meade, you hush your mouth!” hissed Melanie, climbing in beside Mrs. Meade and takingher in her arms. “Do you think it’ll help your mother to have you off getting shot too? I neverheard anything so silly. Drive us home, quick
She turned to Scarlett as Phil picked up the reins.
As soon as you take Auntie home, come over to Mrs. Meade’s. Captain Butler, can you getword to the doctor? He’s at the hospital.
The carriage moved off through the dispersing crowd. Some of the women were weeping withjoy, but most looked too stunned to realize the heavy blows that had fallen upon them. Scarlett benther head over the blurred lists, reading rapidly, to find names of friends. Now that Ashley was safeshe could think of other people. Oh, how long the list was! How heavy the toll from Atlanta, fromall of Georgia.
Good Heavens! “Calvert—Raiford, Lieutenant.” Raif! Suddenly she remembered the day, solong ago, when they had run away together but decided to come home at nightfall because theywere hungry and afraid of the dark.
Fontaine—Joseph K., private,” Little bad-tempered Joe! And Sally hardly over having herbaby
Munroe—LaFayette, Captain.” And Lafe had been engaged to Cathleen Calvert. PoorCathleen! Hers had been a double loss, a brother and a sweetheart. But Sally’s loss was greater—a brother and a husband.
Oh, this was too terrible. She was almost afraid to read further. Aunt Pitty was heaving andsighing on her shoulder and, with small ceremony, Scarlett pushed her over into a comer of thecarriage and continued her reading.
Surely, surely—there couldn’t be three “Tarleton” names on that list. Perhaps—perhaps thehurried printer had repeated the name by error. But no. There they were. “Tarleton—Brenton,Lieutenant.” “Tarleton—Stuart, Corporal.” “Tarleton—Thomas, private.” And Boyd, dead the firstyear of the war, was buried God knew where in Virginia. All the Tarleton boys gone. Tom and thelazy long-legged twins with their love of gossip and their absurd practical jokes and Boyd who hadthe grace of a dancing master and the tongue of a wasp.
She could not read any more. She could not know if any other of those boys with whom she hadgrown up, danced, flirted, kissed were on that list. She wished that she could cry, do something toease the iron fingers that were digging into her throat.
I’m sorry, Scarlett,” said Rhett. She looked up at him. She had forgotten he was still there.
Many of your friends
She nodded and struggled to speak: “About every family in the County—and all—all three ofthe Tarleton boys.
His face was quiet, almost somber, and there was no mocking in his eyes.
And the end is not yet,” he said. “These are just the first lists and they’re incomplete. There’llbe a longer list tomorrow.” He lowered his voice so that those in the near-by carriages could nothear. “Scarlett, General Lee must have lost the battle. I heard at headquarters that he had retreatedback into Maryland.
She raised frightened eyes to his, but her fear did not spring from Lee’s defeat. Longer casualtylists tomorrow! Tomorrow. She had not thought of tomorrow, so happy was she at first thatAshley’s name was not on that list. Tomorrow. Why, right this minute he might be dead and shewould not know it until tomorrow, or perhaps a week from tomorrow.
Oh, Rhett, why do there have to be wars? It would have been so much better for the Yankees topay for the darkies—or even for us to give them the darkies free of charge than to have thishappen.
It isn’t the darkies, Scarlett. They’re just the excuse. There’ll always be wars because men lovewars. Women don’t, but men do—yea, passing the love of women.
His mouth twisted in his old smile and the seriousness was gone from his face. He lifted hiswide Panama hat.
Good-by. I’m going to find Dr. Meade. I imagine the irony of me being the one to tell him ofhis son’s death will be lost on him, just now. But later, he’ll probably hate to think that a speculatorbrought the news of a hero’s death.
Scarlett put Miss Pitty to bed with a toddy, left Prissy and Cookie in attendance and went down the street to the Meade house. Mrs. Meade was upstairs with Phil, waiting her husband’s return,and Melanie sat in the parlor, talking in a low voice to a group of sympathetic neighbors. She wasbusy with needle and scissors, altering a mourning dress that Mrs. Elsing had lent to Mrs. Meade.
Already the house was full of the acrid smell of clothes boiling in homemade black dye for, in thekitchen, the sobbing cook was stirring all of Mrs. Meade’s dresses in the huge wash pot.
How is she?” questioned Scarlett softly.
Not a tear,” said Melanie. “It’s terrible when women can’t cry. I don’t know how men standthings without crying. I guess it’s because they’re stronger and braver than women. She says she’sgoing to Pennsylvania by herself to bring him home. The doctor can’t leave the hospital.
It will be dreadful for her! Why can’t Phil go
She’s afraid he’ll join the army if he gets out of her sight. You know he’s so big for his age andthey’re taking them at sixteen now.
One by one the neighbors slipped away, reluctant to be present when the doctor came home, andScarlett and Melanie were left alone, sewing in the parlor. Melanie looked sad but tranquil, thoughtears dropped down on the cloth she held in her hands. Evidently she had not thought that the battlemight still be going on and Ashley perhaps dead at this very moment. With panic in her heart,Scarlett did not know whether to tell Melanie of Rhett’s words and have the dubious comfort of hermisery or keep it to herself. Finally she decided to remain quiet. It would never do for Melanie tothink her too worried about Ashley. She thanked God that everyone, Melly and Pitty included, hadbeen too engrossed in her own worries that morning to notice her conduct.
After an interval of silent sewing, they heard sounds outside and, peering through the curtains,they saw Dr. Meade alighting from his horse. His shoulders were sagging and his head bowed untilhis gray beard spread out fanlike on his chest. He came slowly into the house and, laying down hishat and bag, kissed both the girls silently. Then he went tiredly up the stairs. In a moment Philcame down, all long legs and arms and awkwardness. The two girls looked an invitation to jointhem, but he went onto the front porch and, seating himself on the top step, dropped his head onhis cupped palm.
Melly sighed.
He’s mad because they won’t let him go fight the Yankees. Fifteen years old! Oh, Scarlett, itwould be Heaven to have a son like that
And have him get killed,” said Scarlett shortly, thinking of Darcy.
It would be better to have a son even if he did get killed than to never have one,” said Melanieand gulped. “You can’t understand, Scarlett, because you’ve got little Wade, but I— Oh, Scarlett, Iwant a baby so bad! I know you think I’m horrid to say it right out, but it’s true and only whatevery woman wants and you know it.
Scarlett restrained herself from sniffing.
If God should will that Ashley should be—taken, I suppose I could bear it, though I’d rather dieif he died. But God would give me strength to bear it. But I could not bear having him dead andnot having—not having a child of his to comfort me. Oh, Scarlett, how lucky you are! Though you lost Charlie, you have his son. And if Ashley goes, I’ll have nothing. Scarlett, forgive me, butsometimes I’ve been so jealous of you
Jealous—of me?” cried Scarlett, stricken with guilt.
Because you have a son and I haven’t. I’ve even pretended sometimes that Wade was minebecause it’s so awful not to have a child.
Fiddle-dee-dee!” said Scarlett in relief. She cast a quick glance at the slight figure withblushing face bent over the sewing. Melanie might want children but she certainly did not have thefigure for bearing them. She was hardly taller than a twelve-year-old child, her hips were as narrowas a child’s and her breasts were very flat. The very thought of Melanie having a child wasrepellent to Scarlett. It brought up too many thoughts she couldn’t bear thinking. If Melanie shouldhave a child of Ashley’s, it would be as though something were taken from Scarlett that was herown.
Do forgive me for saying that about Wade. You know I love him so. You aren’t mad at me, areyou
Don’t be silly,” said Scarlett shortly. “And go out on the porch and do something for Phil. He’scrying.