Leigh Ann's Civil War Read Free

raised you? They say your pa's crazy and your ma's a slut."
    "My brothers, sir. Louis and Teddy. They are both Southern gentlemen."
    He humphed. "Manners are all they got left. All right, all right. We'll use this protection notice for all three of you to be sent back under the guidance of my brother here. And for God's sake, Russ, no more beating her or smacking her around, you hear?"
    "Yeah, I hear."
    "And get her some decent clothing."
    "How am I gonna do that?"
    "Excuse me, sir," I said, "but I'd just as lief stay in my boys' clothes. I can get another shirt. And if I can take the dog with me."
    "The
dog?
Are you sure there isn't anything else you want?"
    "Yessir. I'd like my protection notice returned, if you please."
    He leaned back in his chair, smiling. "Russ, secure a horse for each of them. And five days' worth of rations for each. And the dog. As for the protection notice, little girl..." He held it in his hands, looking at it. "You've used it up. It's like Yankee script. Once you've used it, it's spent. Did your brothers teach you nothing about money?"
    I stared at him in disbelief. "This isn't
money,
sir. It's an official notice, from a major in your own army!"
    "Good man he is, too. One of the best. Well, of course if you insist upon looking at it that way, I can always tell him you lost it. That I never saw it. That you claimed you had it and went reaching in your pocket and couldn't find it, but out of the goodness of my heart I let the three of you go anyway. Couldn't I?"
    This man was beyond the pale. He might as well have foam dribbling out of his mouth. I felt as if I were drowning, standing there. I felt out of breath of a sudden, as if I'd been running and had come to a skidding stop.
    I had best get out of here,
I thought,
while I still can. I had best quit talking while I still have the promise of Carol and Viola and my own way home.
    While I still have three horses and five days' rations for each of us and the dog.
    "Thank you, sir," I said. When what I wanted to say was,
You are the slut. You are the crazy man. You are the one who is dense. And I hope someday your house comes crashing down on you. No, I hope someday your world comes crashing down on you, so there.
    "Come on, dog," I said. And we left.

CHAPTER ONE
Spring 1861 Roswell, Georgia
    I was eleven when the war started. I didn't understand enough to worry, but I did understand it when Miss Finch, my teacher, said that since Georgia had been out of the Union since January we weren't going to be called Abigail Adams Academy for Young Ladies anymore but must find a new name. And Georgia might as well be cut off from the rest of the country.
    As my brothers got ready to leave for the fighting, there was muster on the town square every day. Cicero and I went each morning to watch. So did Primus, our negro overseer, when he could get away.
    When Louis caught me crying one morning after drilling was over and asked me why, I said, "Miss Finch said Georgia is no more part of the country."
    "Miss Finch is an idiot," he said. "She speaks in idle fabrications. If I had my way, I'd take you out of that ridiculous school run by that raving maniac and have you tutored at home."
    "Can't you tell Pa that?"
    "You know Pa hasn't been himself these days, sweetie. Teddy makes such decisions. And Teddy has too many other things on his mind. So for now at least, we'll leave things as they are."
    Pa's mind was already starting to turn because he had money worries, Louis had told me, because his Northern customers wanted him to continue shipping goods and he wouldn't.
    But I had other worries. "Who will take care of me when you and Teddy go away?"
    Louis knelt before me so that his fine sword scraped on the cobblestone walk. "First, we won't be gone long. We'll have this thing with the Yankees over with by Christmas. Teddy and I are going to have a meeting about the care of our women tonight. Likely it will be Viola and Carol. Do you think you can mind them?"
    "Viola