By
TOMMY JAMES
Tommy James is distinguished author historical novels, which are more fact than fiction. The factual events of this Trilogy are well researched and are known history. The author employs fiction to accelerate the pace and to sharpen the image of his creditable and believable characters. This is an outstanding manuscript and will keep the reader on edge to the end.
e-BOOK
Maverick Publishing
HOUSTON, TEXAS
OF
WAR
TOMMY
JAMES
GEORGIA 1864
NANKING 1937
WARSAW 1943
e-Book 2003
www.mittymax.com
Copyright 2003
By
TOMMY JAMES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright 2003
e-Book
Maverick Publishing
HOUSTON, TEXAS
By
TOMMY JAMES
FICTION
The characters in this book, with the exception of actual personages, are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental. The names, incidents, dialogue and opinions expressed are the products of the author’s imagination.
By
TOMMY JAMES
HISTORICAL NOTE
Major General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea
was an extraordinary expedition through the heart of Georgia, from Atlanta to
Savannah, carried out in the fall of 1864, intended to break the supply system
of the Confederacy and hasten the end of the war. With the determination to destroy
all factories, mills, and stores that could help the Confederate armies General
Sherman led over 60,000 troops from Kingston to Savannah, November 12 to
December 22, cutting a swathe of devastation from 20 to 25 miles wide for over
300 miles, destroying not only military but industrial enterprises and creating
resentments so deep that, after nearly a century, his march is still execrated
in the area he traversed.
HARRY HANSEN
CHAPTER
ONE
Billy Bishop looked at his stepfather from across the
room. Billy had been taking inventory of the store’s supplies and thy goods
since it opened at six o’clock this morning. Ralph Beeker, his stepfather, had
been attending to the customers that came into their mercantile store to buy
the different items of clothing and other merchandise that they stocked. Billy
had never known his real father. He had died of consumption when Billy was only
three years old and Ralph had married his widowed mother, Sarah, after a short
courtship. She had needed a man’s help at the time—being widowed and with a
young son to raise, along with someone to help her to attend the mercantile
store. She knew practically nothing about the store’s business and Ralph Beeker
had just happened to pass by at the time. It was a marriage of convenience for
both of them—she needed help and Ralph needed a job. Ralph was good to Billy
and his mother and provided for his adopted family quite well. They lacked for
nothing and the store was prosperous, mainly due to Ralph’s hard work. The
store was making a good living for them, especially since the Civil War was in
its third year with no end in sight.
Lately though, his stepfather had seemed to always
disagree with Billy on almost everything they discussed. One very sore point
with them was the war. Ralph wanted him to volunteer for the army when he
turned eighteen next month, but Billy was skeptical to enlist; besides, he was
worried about his mother’s health. Also, patriotism wasn’t one of Billy’s
virtues. Anyway, he didn’t want to go in the army and really didn’t care who
won the war.
What Billy wanted was for his stepfather to
pay the three hundred dollars to exempt him from military service. Billy’s
argument was that he would save the store money by working there, and not
having to pay someone else to take his place. But his stepfather refused to do
it, saying that it would do him good to get out in the world and see how other
people live.
Seeing he had no chance to convince his stepfather, he
approached his mother with his problem. But she didn’t want to get involved in
their dispute, saying to Billy, “It’s best to do as Ralph says. He knows best.”
His mother never took a stand on anything, always doing what Ralph wanted or
suggested to her. Maybe, Billy thought, Ralph is right and that it was time for
him to leave home. Maybe his enlistment in the army would be the best way for
him to leave the nest.
That night, while eating dinner, Billy said to his
parents, “Well, I guess I will do as you both want. When I turn eighteen next
month, I’ll volunteer for the army.”
Continuing, he said, “They have different enlistment
programs and you can enlist for one to three years, so I’ve decided to enlist
for two years. Tomorrow, I’ll go and talk to the recruiting officer and find
out how to go about enlisting.”
Both of his parents were stunned by his words.
“That’s a darn good idea Ralph stammered. Regaining his composure, he said, “I heard
that Lincoln has authorized an enlistment bonus to volunteers.”
“What’s an enlistment bonus?” his mother asked.
“That’s where the army pays a person to enlist for a
certain period of time. It can amount to quite a sum of money, depending on how
long you sign up for,” Ralph explained. He was more interested in the amount of
the enlistment bonus than how his stepson felt about leaving home and going
into the army—where he could possibly be wounded or even killed!
Billy was slowly beginning to understand what his
stepfather was up to. He wanted Billy to enlist in the army so he could collect
the bonus money the army was offering. What a conniving son of a b----, Billy
thought to himself
Ralph
looked at his stepson and saw the hurt look on his face. Does he know what I am
thinking? Ralph asked himself.
“Tell you what I will do,” Ralph said to Billy.
“Tomorrow I’ll go with you at lunch time and we can talk to the recruiting
officer together. The recruiting post is in the city hall now, not far from the
store. How does that suit you?”
“Sounds good to me,” Billy agreed.
I wonder what is going on in his mind? Billy puzzled
to himself, as he finished eating his meal. Ralph will probably want to take
care of the money for him—for safekeeping reasons! I’ve got to think of some
way to keep it out of his hands. If I give it to Mom, she will just turn around
and give it to Ralph. Mom never could handle money, maybe Ralph was her best
bet when it came to her money—but he wasn’t going to be Billy’s banker!
Ralph was already thinking what he was going to do
with Billy’s enlistment bonus money and wanted to be sure to have Billy join for
the maximum amount of time. What did Billy say? One to three years? It will be
a three-year enlistment if he has his way; then he would get not only the bonus
money, but his stepson would be away from home for the three years. Hell, in
less than three years, he could “milk” the store for all it was worth and along
with the army bonus money, he could move to Colorado or California with his
girlfriend, Amy. He was getting tired of putting up with Sarah; besides, she
was getting sicker every day. He had been taking care of her and Billy for
almost fifteen years now. It was time for him to move on—to a new place with a
new woman and a lot of new money. With Billy out of the way it would be simple
for him just to walk away from the store and Sarah.
But he would wait a little while longer and see how
the war progressed. He was making too much money right now to leave, although
his girlfriend, Amy, wanted to leave town right now. He would have to put her
off for a while longer, maybe even till the end of the war. When the war ended,
the whole country would be moving to the new lands opening up in the west and
Ralph wanted to be part of it. He needed lots of money to make that kind of
move and the store was that ticket for him. He needed a little more time, then
he would be ready to make his move!
The next morning at the store, Billy finished stocking
the shelves with new merchandise and went to the storeroom to repackage the
bags of flour that had arrived last night. Lately, a Union Army military supply
wagon would come to their store, either late at night or early in the morning,
and Ralph would always meet it alone. The supplies would be off-loaded rapidly,
and the supply wagon would disappear as swiftly and as quietly as it came. The
following day, Billy would have the job of opening the bags of flour, beans, or
some other foodstuffs, and repackage the item into smaller bags to be sold in
the store. The military burlap bags were always kept out of sight and hidden
under some loose boards in the floor of the storeroom until they could be
destroyed. Ralph had warned Billy not to talk or even think about the “comings
and goings” of the military supply wagon, and to be sure to never mention what
was printed on the burlap bags: Property of the U.S. Army.
Billy was busy repackaging the dry stores and
occasionally being called on to fetch some item from the storeroom that a
customer wanted to buy. Billy noticed that Ralph had a strange look on his
face—somewhat of a greedy expression whenever he took some bills or coins from
a customer or made change for them. At other times, Billy would see Ralph
counting and recounting the money in the cash register, as if he was making
sure it was all there. He always had the same covetous grin on his thin, narrow
face and with a slight curl in the upper corner of his mouth whenever he was
handling money. Billy had asked himself a thousand times or more— what is he
thinking of? Whatever it is, it can’t be something good!
Before
long it was noon and Ralph shouted to Billy, who was still working in the
storeroom, “Get ready to go, it’s almost lunch time.”
“Be right there,” Billy called back to his stepfather,
tying up the last bag of corn and taking off his grocer’s apron.
Together, they walked the several blocks to the new
city hall building. It was still under construction, but because of the war and
lack of finds it would be some time before it would be completed. Walking
through the double, front doors of the unfinished building and under some
overhead scaffolding, they looked for the Army Recruiting Office. Finally they
located it, at the far end of the building near the still unfinished public
toilets.
Entering the closed door of the recruiting station,
they saw a fat, mustached man in a blue Union Army uniform sitting behind a desk
with his feet resting on a pulled-out drawer. His eyes were closed and he was
softly snoring.
Ralph and Billy looked at the snoozing soldier, then
at each other.
“Hello,” Ralph said, in a stem voice.
Startled out of his slumber, Sergeant Osborne sat up
straight and smiled at the two intruders of his domain.
“Good morning, I mean, good afternoon,” he said,
yawning out loud. “What can I do for you-all?”
“I would like to see about enlisting my son in the
army,” Ralph said proudly, putting his arm around Billy’s shoulder, “How do I
go about doing that?”
“You do it right here, mister,” the sergeant replied.
“There are certain requirements, you know. A volunteer must be eighteen years
of age at his last birthday, in good health, and be willing to sign-up for a
certain period of time. The army pays a bonus now depending on how many years
you enlist for. It’s that simple.”
“This enlistment bonus. How does it work?” Ralph
asked.
“Depends on how many years you want to enlist for,”
Sergeant Osborne explained. “If you volunteer for one year, you receive three
hundred dollars bonus money—half of it when you take the oath and the other
half on your first payday in the army. For a two-year enlistment, you get six
hundred dollars; and for a three year enlistment, you get nine hundred dollars.
Take your choice.”
“What does a draftee get?” Billy asked,
“Nothing,”
the sergeant said, smiling to himself. “A draftee gets no bonus and is in the
army for the duration of the war plus six months. Normally they are assigned to
an infantry outfit after basic training. In my experience, a volunteer will
usually get duty preference over a draftee.” Sergeant Osborne had made his
sales pitch, and now, it was up to the potential soldier to make up his mind.
Ralph had mentally calculated that a three-year
enlistment for Billy would suit him just fine. Billy would be gone for three
years and he would have Billy’s nine hundred dollars too. He didn’t think he
would have any problem getting the first half of the bonus money, but how could
he get the second half?
Billy listened to the two connivers plan his future
for him. Sergeant Osborne was looking to fill his enlistment quota, and his
stepfather, Ralph, was trying to think of a way to get his enlistment bonus. He
had to do something fast!
Before either of the two could speak, Billy asked the
sergeant, “How can I, or what is the best and safest way to invest my bonus
money?”
Ralph took a long and hard look at the sergeant,
hoping he had no answer.
“Oh, that’s the easy part,” Sergeant Osborne replied.
“Most of the volunteers invest in government bonds. The Federal Government will
sell you bonds at seven percent interest. Banker Berger, over at the Ohio
National Bank, can set the whole thing up for you if you want.”
Sergeant Osborne didn’t want to lose a potential
recruit over a matter of money or how to invest it. He was already behind in
his monthly recruiting quotas and he knew what happened to recruiters who
didn’t make their quotas—combat duty! This part of Ohio wasn’t exactly real
patriotic like some of the other states in the Union.
“When would you like to enlist?” Sergeant Osborne
asked Billy. “We can start the paper work right now, if you want to.”
“Why not?” Ralph answered the sergeant. “Now’s as good
a time as any.”
The sergeant looked at Billy. Turning to Ralph, he
said, “I think it’s up to your son to decide if he wants to enlist. It’s his
decision.”
“You’re right, sergeant,” Ralph agreed. Looking at
Billy, he asked, “How about it Billy, what have you decided to do?”
Pausing a moment,
Billy said to the recruiting sergeant, “Yes, sir, I’m ready and willing.” A
large sigh of relief coming over him—his future was decided
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