“Whar’s that damn Yankee Lieutenant?” barked the Rebel Sergeant.
Reuben struggled to his feet. His stomach still churned from the half-cooked Confederate cornmeal of the night before. He’d been up half the night tending to the wounded Cronin. They had finally fallen asleep about the same time. His back ached from sleeping on the wet ground.
“Here.” He said lifting his hand.
“Ya’ll come with me, heah, ya abolitionist scum.”
Abolitionist? thought Reuben, Hope these fellers don’t know about Kansas.
“Da Cunel wants to see ya. Come along.”
As they walked by where the horses were picketed, the Rebel Sergeant pointed to Brownie and asked, “That un you’alls?”
“Maybe,” Reuben answered as Brownie perked up his ears hearing his familiar voice.
“Thought so. Damn of’cers always get the best. Looks like a good ‘un.”
Reuben stared back blankly.
“Can he swim?” queried the Rebel.
“Never had to,” answered Reuben.
“How is he in fording?”
“Fair to middlin;”
“Does he jump well?”
“He don’t like stone walls.”
“How does he stand fire?”[1]
“Skitterish.” Reuben lied.
Then Reuben noticed the long Spanish rowels on the Rebel’s spurs. If there was one thing Brownie didn’t tolerate, it was hard spurring.
“Sometimes he needs a bit of the whip and the spur,” Reuben offered, trying not to smirk.
With the conversation finished, the Sergeant escorted Reuben to the Colonel’s white tent. Noting the U.S. markings, Reuben assumed it was part of the booty captured two days before at Brice’s Cross Roads. They must have got the whole damn train, he thought.
An orderly was lounging outside the tent.
“I shoulda shot this damn Yankee shavetail,but I couldn’t git him to rum,” said the Sergeant.
The orderly looked Reuben up and down spitting out some tobacco juice. “Ya’ll be down heah tryin’ to take our slaves and burn us out.” He remarked. “We gonna learn ya not to mess with the South. Cunnel Forrest ‘ill make shore ‘nuf of that.”
“Colonel Forrest?” Reuben asked.
“Jesse Forrest, Cunnel C.S.A. Ya’ll mighta hear-ed of his brother, Gen’l Forrest.”
So, the 16th Tennessee was commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s little brother, Reuben thought. Mighta figured.
“He’s a-waitn’ fer ya.” said the orderly as he escorted Reuben inside the tent. They stopped and stood at attention while the Colonel shuffled through something in a box with the letters US stenciled on it.
The Colonel looked up.
“Have a seat Yank,” he said pointing to a camp stool. Then he made a sweeping gesture that included the tent and its contents. “Yer Army sure travels in luxury. Maybe that’s why we keep whuppin’ you all.”
Reuben was quickly sizing up the Commander of the 16th. He spoke with a more cultured tone than the lowly Confederate soldiers he had previously encountered. He was an aristocrat. Unlike the average Confederate, he owned and traded slaves. For him, the war was about maintaining the lucrative family business. His features looked familiar. Back in Memphis, a photograph of his brother had been circulated among the troopers. It was said that General Sherman would richly reward the man who killed or captured the Devil Forrest. Perhaps his head was worth a furlough or a promotion. One could dream.
“Get us a couple of cups of that good Yankee coffee!” barked the Colonel at the orderly. Turning his gaze back to Reuben, he commented, “Due to your cursed embargo, we don’t see much coffee in the South.”
Reuben again suppressed a grin. At least some of the Union’s war strategy was working.
“You boys are from Iowa?” queried Colonel Forrest as Reuben nodded.
“Whereabouts?”
“Appanoose County.”
“I had friends who did business with a feller from up there before the War. Did you know Ward Coltrane? Is he fighting for the Federals now?”
Reuben shook his head no. He wasn’t giving this Confederate any information on his old friend Ward Coltrane. Coltrane once ran the cooper works in Centerville. His barrels were highly prized. Before the war, he had moved his cooperage to East Tennessee where he made barrels for the whisky distillers. When the War broke out, he returned to Iowa leaving his operation in the charge of his trusted foreman. If Forrest found out Coltrane was a Captain in the 1st Iowa Infantry, his assets could be seized and forfeited.
The orderly returned with the coffee. It was weak. The Confederates had to make it last as long as they could. The blockade wasn’t letting up any time soon.
“How long will it take Sturgis to get back to Memphis?”
“Not long,” Reuben answered noncommittally.
“Reckon he’s finished?”
“I hope so,” Reuben answered revealing his disgust of his former Commander.
“Where is Sherman headed for next?”
“Probably somewhere you don’t want him to be.”
“You aren’t very talkative, are you?”
“I never been much fer words.”
“O.K., Captain Rice will be interviewing the rest of your men. He may even recruit a few of them for our army.”
“My men ain’t bounty jumpers!” Reuben hissed. “You won’t be galvanizin’ any of ‘em.”
“We’ll see,” snickered Colonel Forrest. “A few months in Winder’s pens might change their minds.”
Reuben knew that the commander of the Confederate prison system was General Winder. He was said to be killing more Yankees than most Rebel field commanders.
“I don’t think so. Where are we going from here Sir?”
“Good question. We’re waiting for more rolling stock on the Mobile and Ohio. You’ll be taken to a holding camp at Cahaba, Alabama.”
Reuben chuckled at the mention of the railroad. He’d spent the last Summer tearing up Southern railroads. Too bad they missed the tracks to Tupelo.
“And from there?”
“I figure your men will go to Andersonville and you’ll be headed to the Officer’s Prison at Macon,” said Colonel Forrest.
Reuben shuddered. Andersonville had only been open for a few months, but its reputation was well-known in the North. Men were starving and dying by the hundreds in the makeshift camp. It wasn’t right for him to go to a better place while his men suffered in a hellhole like Andersonville.
“Sir, I’d like to stay with my men.”
The Colonel looked at Reuben in surprise.
“Sorry, but we’ve learned to keep the officers separate from the men. We had some difficulties with that. Your men don’t need help organizing riots and such.”
Reuben shook his head wistfully.
“Your men will be O.K. as soon as the exchange gets up and running again. Your General Butler is the problem. He keeps insisting we include Negroes in the exchange. He can’t seem to understand that they are our property, not soldiers.”
Rueben grimaced. The exchange system was hopelessly broken. It was going to be a long war.
“The Provost will take you boys to Tupelo tomorrow to wait for transportation. I wish you well. Orderly! Take the Lieutenant back to the holding area.”
Reuben stood.
“You are dismissed.”
Reuben looked down at his sleeve as the guard returned him to his men. He could still see the faded outline where his Sergeant’s chevrons had once been. They had come off when he was commissioned a Lieutenant two months before. He had spent over 3 years as an enlisted man. The men going to Andersonville were not only his friends and neighbors, they were his responsibility.
As soon as the guard turned to leave, Reuben reached up. He grabbed one of his epaulets and thought for a moment. The Rebels weren’t very good at keeping track of things. Hell, they hadn’t even taken roll yet. Then he grasped the epaulet firmly and ripped it off. A second later the other one was gone. He tossed them into some bushes.
Reuben DeLay would enter the Confederate prison system as a Private.
He was going to Andersonville!
LDT June 6, ‘24
NOTES ON HISTORICAL ACCURACY:
-Reuben DeLay enlisted in the 3rd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War.
-The 3rd Iowa was part of a Union force under General Samuel Sturgis at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads on June 10, 1864.
-Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest decisively defeated the much larger Union force.
-On the day after the battle 2nd Lt. Reuben DeLay’s I Company was defending the rear of the retreating Yankee column near Ripley, Mississippi.
-The 16th Tennessee Cavalry, whose Deputy Commander was Lt Col Jesse Forrest, captured Reuben and 26 others. Private Cronin was wounded in the leg during the encounter.
-This hypothetical interrogation is based on the accounts of other captured Union soldiers.
-Ward Coltrane is a fictional character. The Confederacy did seize the assets of those who were disloyal to their cause.
-The Confederates took advantage of the breakdown in the prisoner exchange system to recruit POWs for their army. One of the men captured with Reuben DeLay may have taken them up on their offer. He was returned to Union control early and given a dishonorable discharge. I suspect that he joined the Confederate Army and deserted at the first opportunity. His comrades did not view him as a traitor or deserter.
-Records show Reuben DeLay was a prisoner at Andersonville even though he was an officer. Prisoner John McElroy reported that in August of 1864 two to three hundred Lieutenants and Captains were identified among the Andersonville prisoners and sent to Camp Oglethorpe near Macon, Georgia. Reuben must have been one of them. He spent the rest of the War in Officer prisons.
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[1] Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons. John McElroy. (1879).
Outlaws, Outrages and Outright Lies 