In this
letter, I say, I had expected--I do not know what. But certainly I had
not expected to see sitting on the page written in my fiancee's hand,
the face of another woman. I hated myself for it.
The second letter was from my mother, and it left me still more
disconcerted and sad. "Jack," it said, "I grieve unspeakably. I am sad
beyond all imaginings of sadness. I need thee. Come back the first day
thee can to thy mother."
There was indeed need for me at home. Yet here was I with my errand not
yet well begun; for Captain Stevenson told me this morning that the Post
Adjutant had received word from Colonel Meriwether saying that he would
be gone for some days or weeks on the upper frontier. Rumor passed about
that a new man, Sherman, was possibly to come on to assume charge of
Jefferson, a man reported to be a martinet fit to stamp out any
demonstration in a locality where secession sentiment was waxing strong.
Meriwether, a Virginian, and hence suspected of Southern sympathy, was
like many other Army officers at the time, shifted to points where his
influence would be less felt, President Buchanan to the contrary
notwithstanding. The sum of all which was that if I wished to meet
Colonel Meriwether and lay before him my own personal request, I would
be obliged to seek for him far to the West, in all likelihood at Fort
Leavenworth, if not at the lower settlements around the old town of
Independence.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123