Read Online Yankee Belles in Dixie by Gilbert L. Morris - Free Book Online

that. Don’t you, Jeff?” Charlie said.
    â€œSure do! He’s something, isn’t he!”
    The meeting with General Lee was the high point of the campaign as far as Jeff was concerned. He never forgot it.
    And then it began to rain. One time Jeff saw a mule slide twenty feet down a wet, slippery slope, and the soldiers exhausted themselves trying to get it back up the mountainside.
    â€œI never saw as much rain as this,” Tom complained. “Rains every day. Every time you yell ‘hello’ you get a shower. Then some of the men had to shoot their guns to get the loads out. That brought on a regular flood.”
    Somehow they made their way forward but ran into such bad terrain that the cannon had to be abandoned. They spent their nights in the cold mountains. The rain spoiled their rations, the muskets were wet, and the gunpowder was ruined. The troops were forbidden to light fires.
    Jeff wrote a letter to his father. “We tried to sleep, but the rain poured so and the torrents ran down the mountains with such a flood of water, we’d have been drowned if we’d laid down on the ground.”
    Finally, however, General Lee got his forces into position. He sent out scouts, among them his son, Rooney, and a colonel named Washington. The colonel was killed, and Rooney and his riders barely escaped.
    Yet it was not the rain that cost the South the battle, but the behavior of a man called Colonel Rust. When he captured some Federal pickets, they told him such tales of Federal strength that he simply gave up.
    On the night of October 6, the Confederates heard wheels rumbling and thought that the enemy was about to attack. Jeff and Tom stood closetogether, drenched through, and Jeff said, “I guess they’re coming, don’t you reckon?”
    â€œI don’t see how they could attack in a rain like this. Not one musket in ten would go off with the powder wet,” Tom answered.
    When at last daylight came, Lee discovered that the Federals were gone. The Cheat Mountain campaign was over. Lee stayed on for a few days, but the weather was now so bitter that there was little to do.
    On the way back to Richmond the men grumbled, but when they got there they discovered that the story of the so-called battle had preceded them, and it was General Lee who took the criticism. Newspapers were calling him “Granny Lee,” saying he didn’t have what it took to be a general.
    But Jeff learned what a real leader was like, for when General Lee addressed the troops, he showed no sign of disappointment. He encouraged them by telling them they had done their best. “You men proved yourselves as soldiers,” he said. “I’m proud of you, for you did all that men could do, and we will fight again.”
    Later, as Jeff and Tom took up their quarters in Richmond, Jeff said, “Well, that wasn’t much of a fight, was it? I feel sorry for General Lee.”
    Tom shook his head, “He didn’t have a chance. All those other generals messed it up. But you’ll see we haven’t heard the last of General Robert E. Lee.”

7
A Beautiful Spy
    M y, it’s cold out here, Pa!” Leah drew her wool coat closer around her and looked up at the sky. “It’s going to snow again tonight, I believe.”
    It was the first day of January 1862, and the weather had already been harsh. The sound of the horses’ hooves was muffled by the snow underfoot as Mr. Carter drove them quickly.
    Her father agreed. “Well, starting out a new year with snow is as good a way as any.”
    They arrived at the prison, and he tied the horse to the rail. “We’ll have to make two trips this time, Leah.”
    â€œNo, we can take it all, Pa. Here, pile it up high on my arms.”
    He grinned with stiff lips. “All right, let’s see if we can.” The two of them stacked the packages of food and clothing and blankets they had brought and were