When I first met Rob Johnson, I didn’t like him. He had just made corporal and did the sergeant’s bidding, which included robbing me of my deer meat. Ain’t nothing wrong with a man trying to keep from starving. Rob said the Yanks could have heard my shot, but I knew there wasn’t nobody up on that icy godforsaken mountain but us. Right then, I’d had enough of the war and heartily wished I was back home on my daddy’s farm.
When Jackson’s army finally got to Bath, we chased them Yanks back to the Potomac. That was when Rob, Sergeant Williams and me got captured. We escaped and got rescued by Rebel Rangers. Rob knew the men, since they came from around his home place, and convinced me to join them. Even though they were a ruthless gang, I found it was a better life than with the Confederates. We ate better and had better horses and more freedom, but the leader threatened to kill me if I slept on guard duty again. Rob stood up for me, so the moment passed.
When Rob’s lady friend, Laura, went missing, he got help from the Quakers. They hired him to work on the Underground Railroad and he took me on to help out. Later, the Quakers forced him out when he fell in love with one of their women. We landed back in the Rebel Army with Sergeant Williams and all got captured at Bristoe Station. The Yanks sent us to a hellish camp on the Chesapeake Bay called Point Lookout Prison. The guards had it in for me and I got the worst jobs. One day they set us to unload ships at the landing and I spilled a crate of oysters in the snow. Rob tried to help and we were both ordered to work at the pest house – a place they sent Rebel smallpox victims. Most of these patients died and I was sure I’d catch the pox.
The war took a lot from us. Now, when I look back, I don’t know how we survived.
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