Chapter 1
The Civil War hadn't really meant much to us in Texas, at least it hadn't meant much to me. We didn't own any slaves and didn't want any. Our small cattle spread didn't take a lot of help and all the while Dad, my brothers Tom and Jack, and I had been able to get things done. Someone in Texas must have had or wanted slaves, or something. Texas seceded from the Union and joined the war.
Talk about a stupid move, there was one for you. I was even stupider. I joined the Confederate Army along with plenty more young fools and was off to war. Eighteen years old and I was off to fight the Yankees. Shit, I wasn't even mad at 'em.
It wasn't long before I was mad enough at Sergeant Jackson though, and then I was mad at Lieutenant Johnson, and pretty soon mad at the whole army I was in. I guess some of our folks knew what they were doing, but no one around me did. After the first two little dust-ups I knew that I'd be leaving the war as a dead man if I stayed with this bunch of morons. Yammering about the wonderful Southern way of life, honor, and dignity.
Those Yankees didn't give a damn about honor, dignity, or any of that bullshit at all. They wanted to kill us and go back home. To me it seemed Jackson and Johnson wanted to help them get the job done soonest.
I took all I could stand of them preaching about fighting to the bitter end for the cause. Fuck the cause. The other dumb bastards could fight for it. I wanted to live over the war and by now I knew that I'd have a hell of a lot easier time doing it with a blue uniform than with a gray one. During guard duty one dark cloudy night I carried my ass.
It was only a few miles to a union camp and I made my way there. The young idiot on guard duty nearly shit himself when I surrendered. It's a fucking wonder he didn't shoot me by accident. Eventually he settled down, took my guns, and led me to his Sergeant. Finally I'd come up on someone in a uniform that wasn't a complete fool. Later I'd learn how rare that was.
Turns out that I wasn't the first good old boy who had come to his senses. They didn't tell me who any of the others were and I didn't recognize anyone, but the Captain that questioned me let me know that there'd been some others swapping gray uniforms for those nice new blue ones lately. After I'd convinced him that I'd seen the error of the Confederate ways and that I knew now that preserving the Union was the way it had to be he swore me into the U S Army. They didn't let me stay with the group I'd surrendered to though.
Two days later I was a hundred miles away and the only ones that really knew that I'd come from the other side were my new Sergeant, O'Riley, and my new Lieutenant, Rosterman. A week later I learned that I hadn't got away from the Rebs a minute too soon.
My X Lieutenant, Johnson and my X Sergeant, Jackson had tried to pull off a bold but stupid nighttime raid. All but two of the poor bastards with them had given their all for the cause and the two who lived were shot up bad. Did I feel guilty? Not by a fucking long shot. I felt smart and better yet, I could still feel and I didn't have any holes in my hide. Fuck the cause and free those poor noble darkies, those were my new words to live by and heavy on the living part. Slavery just wasn't right, especially if I had to die to keep it going.
I wasn't even pissed at all about my demotion to foot soldier. I'd rather be riding a horse instead of walking of course, but being able to lie down and shoot from cover had its own advantages. Especially after O'Riley noticed that unlike most of those around me, I could usually hit what I shot at.
I spent the next sixteen months mostly laying behind cover and poking holes in good old boys from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. I did my best to concentrate on the officers when I could. They were the bastards who were so anxious to give their all for the cause and I was more than happy to help them along.
It was all over but the singing and slow walking by April of eighteen sixty-five, but they didn't turn me loose until June. They promised if I waited around that eventually they could provide me transportation home, but I kindly declined.
In the first place I didn't want to sit on my ass around in Virginia for what would no doubt be months, and in the second, I didn't want to arrive home in style while those that had stayed with the cause had to walk. I could see there might be some hard feelings somewhere along the line.
I was better off than those poor bastards that stuck to their original side by a good way. Hell, the Union Army actually paid me in real money and for a few bucks they let me keep my perfectly useable Spencer carbine, my more accurate but slower firing Sharp's, and my only recently acquired Remington New Model 1863 44 revolver. They even sold me all the amunition I wanted for dirt cheap. They had plenty now. I was a little pissed that I hadn't been able to keep my saber from my first incarnation as a Confederate Gentleman in the glorious Cavalry, but I hadn't seen that since the night I surrendered.
They paid me off, made me take off the emblems and patches from my uniform, and bid me a fond farewell. I lit out walking but I didn't head home. Go west young man. I'd heard that somewhere and it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Two weeks of looking around in every little town I came to finally found me a horse good enough to buy, a mule that was worth the price, and a saddle good enough to ride. It would have been easy to find a McClellan for nearly nothing but I'd already done all the time in one of those bastards I wanted to. I splurged and bought a brand new saddle from a small shop. The owner had made the saddle and it was a good one.
Just because I didn't want another McClellan ball buster didn't mean I turned up my nose at all the war equipment that was on the market now. I bought another Spencer and two more Remingtons from mustered out soldiers that were short of drinking money. Hell, one of the Remingtons looked like it had never even been fired.
Even though they'd let me keep my uniform and it was serviceable enough, I got out of it as soon as I could. I hadn't been broke when I converted myself to a union soldier and I had more sense than to spend my Union pay on whores and shitty whiskey. I wasn't that much a fan of jacking off, but it was a hell of a lot cheaper and even healthier than that. Being a soldier with a case of the clap wasn't one of my lifelong ambitions. So when I was mustered out and paid off I had more than the usual unemployed soldier and I could afford some normal looking clothes.
I was heading west but in no real hurry to get there, nor had I any real destination in mind. After a few weeks I did decide to head for Independence Missouri to see about tagging along with a wagon train. I didn't know a thing about looking for gold but neither had thousands of the others that had gone that way with that very thing in mind for years. I did know something about cattle though and all those looking for gold would need something to eat whether they found any or not. I figured I could find something to do that would pay my way for a while and there was a lot of country out that way to see.
When I got to Independence I was surprised. I'd had hints from others I talked to while traveling but the reality of the place was more than I'd expected. There were a hell of a lot of people heading west and a lot of them were stuck in Independence trying to get enough of an outfit together to make the trip.
I did what I'd been doing for the last ten months or so; I wandered around trying to get a handle on what was going on. I did very little talking and a lot of listening. It was late April of 1866 and I learned there weren't nearly as many people here this year as there had been being. The railroads were well on their way to providing an easy trip west and it seemed that wagon trains would probably peter out all together within another year or two.
I was here now though and I had my mind made up to go west. I hadn't decided whether I'd go to Oregon or California or somewhere in between but wherever west I was going this was the place to get started.
With a horse and a good pack mule I'd been picking up this and that as I worked my way this far. Knowing that things would come dear out close to the jumping off point, I'd spent considerable time during my wandering in stocking up. I didn't have enough for a trip by myself though, and if I couldn't find someone that needed to hire a hand along the way I would pay dearly for any supplies I needed to buy.
At least now a days there were supplies to be had. It must have been a lot tougher earlier on when you had to make do with whatever you could bring along from the first. There still weren't any really big towns or cities between here and there but at least now some trading posts had sprung up. They would probably fade out too once the railroad got finished, unless they happened to be near the train's right-of-way.
I found out that the local law around Independence looked long and hard at strange mounted men. It wasn't that they intentionally gave me a hard time, but I was questioned about my plans more than once. Experience with thieves and cheats trying to make off with some of the migrants money or stores had probably taught them to be cautious. I passed muster somehow though and after a couple of days they left me alone.
I had a stroke of good luck while hunting a livery stable to take care of my horse and mule. There was a man asking around for someone to drive a wagon. I heard him talking to the livery's wrangler about it and so I just jumped in and volunteered that I might be interested in the job. He gave me a long looking over and then asked me to come on to a nearby saloon to sit down and talk about it.
He got a beer at the bar and then we sat down at a table.
"I'll buy you a beer if you're tapped out," he said.
"I'm not. I don't drink beer or whiskey. I've heard it's an acquired taste and I never acquired it. Don't seem like I've missed out on much so far."
"You may have a point," he said.
Bill Arceneaux was from Southern Louisiana. He said that before the war he'd had a small sugar cane plantation but he admitted all that was gone now. He'd had to turn his slaves loose and sell his place for whatever he could get out of it. He was taking his wife and family out to California now and he planned to try his hand in the shipping business once he was settled out there.
There was Bill, his wife, two daughters, a cook, the cook's daughter and a hired man with him. He told me that the cook, her daughter, and the hired man had been his slaves before the war but that now they were hired help. I didn't care that much whether they were hired or not. If he still treated them like slaves we'd probably have a run in sooner or later, but to tell the truth, I'd switched sides to save my own hide. It wasn't like I'd taken up freeing the slaves as a religion. Still, I'd come to think it was the right thing to do after a while, and the Union had won the war.
He said that he'd had two hired men but one of them had left him to join up with some other darkies that had there own wagon and were heading west too. He had three wagons and he needed another man to drive the last one.
"I ain't trying to talk myself out of a job, but usually there ain't much driving to do from what I hear. You could probably get by with your wife or the cook driving the other wagon."
"It's out of the question for my wife to drive a wagon or do any kind of work. Mary, the cook, could probably do well enough driving most of the time but if something comes up I'll need another man to help out. I haven't got around to asking yet but I'm assuming that you can handle a gun too. Things can come up on a long trip like this and I might need help along those lines too.
"Besides, I've heard from a lot of people that Jack Jenkins is the best wagon leader in the business and I've signed on to go with him. He didn't like the fact that I had darkies driving my other two wagons in the first place and when Slim ran off he told me we couldn't go with him unless I hired another driver that he approved of or I left that wagon behind," he said.
"Seems like it's a free country and you could go wherever you wanted too."
"I can and he wouldn't try to keep us from following him but he wouldn't help us if something went wrong and he says he'd keep us out of his camps. It's too far to try to travel like that and I know myself I'll be better off with another man along. He says there may be times when a man who can shoot will come in handy. You can can't you?" he asked.
"I've handled a gun plenty in the last few years."
"In the war?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Which side?" he asked.
"I don't remember, most of the time it's healthier not to."
He laughed and then he was quiet for a few minutes, just looking at me again.
"You'll do," he said, "I'll pay sixty a month and found."
I nearly had to bite my tongue. He was the first one I'd really talked to about working my way west and he was offering me about twice what I'd expected. I didn't jump at the offer but I did tell him it sounded more than fair and that I was for it if he was sure he was.
"Let's go on out to the wagons then to let you look around and to make sure Jack thinks you'll do," he said.
When I agreed we went back to the livery for our horses. I noticed right off that he had the hostler saddle his mount for him and I wondered who'd be saddling it on the trail. When I thought about it the sixty dollars told me I would if need be.
"You got any outfit at all?" he asked me, before we rode out.
"Yeh, I got a mule in the livery and most of my things are with the pack saddle in the tack room."
"Good. If things are ok with Jack you can bring it on out to the wagons if you want to. No sense paying the livery to keep it if you're going with us," he said.
That would be even better. I'd already seen all of Independence I wanted to and I'd just as soon stay with the wagons if there would be cooking going on there, but I didn't want to fuck with it right now. I could get my things tomorrow since I'd paid in advance for the week.
It seemed that there were wagons everywhere when we arrived. Bill led the way to his setup and when we got there Jack Jenkins was talking to Jim, Bill's darky. Turns out that he was inspecting the wagons to make sure he couldn't see any trouble that might come up quick.
Bill introduced me to Jenkins and he looked me over too. He didn't ask any questions though, just told Bill I'd do fine. He went about his business looking over the wagons while Bill took me to meet his wife and kids. As soon as I saw them I knew it was going to be a long trip.
Helen Arceneaux was a fine looking woman and her twin girls - she said they were fourteen - were lookers themselves. They weren't identical twins cause one was blonde and the other was a redhead but they both had blue eyes. Helen was a dark brunette with blue eyes also. Even the twins already had curves everywhere they were supposed to, and looking at Helen let me know that their curves were going to get curvier on down the road. I had to watch myself to make sure that Bill didn't catch me with my tongue hanging out.
Bill called Jim over but didn't bother introducing him to me. He just told Jim to take care of our horses for us and the way he said it would have pissed me off pretty bad if he'd'a been talking to me. It didn't seem to bother Jim at all though and he got right to it.
Bill didn't bother with any introductions to Mary or her daughter Honey either, but Helen did. Knowing that Mary was the cook made me be especially nice to she and Honey. The fact that Mary was as handsome a darky as I'd ever seen didn't hurt my feelings either. Honey was quite a bit lighter than Mary and I was pretty sure that there must have been a white man in Bill's woodshed somewhere about the time that Honey got started. Maybe it was even old Bill. In fact, looking at her closer let me think I could see a little resemblance between Honey and Helen's daughters, Rebecca and Elizabeth. Seemed that this might be a lot closer family than I'd thought at first.
Before he left, Jack Jenkins had told us that he'd sent a man ahead four days ago and that he'd just made it back this afternoon. The scout thought that the grass was in good enough shape for us to go ahead and move out, even if it was a little early in the year. Jack said that we'd be leaving at sunrise the day after tomorrow and he told Bill if there was anything he needed from town he should get it tomorrow. Bill told him that all we needed from town was my mule and outfit.
Bill talked to Helen for a few minutes and then he wandered off toward some of the other wagons. Helen and the girls got back into their wagon and I found a place to sit on a tongue and just watched Mary and Honey working on supper. Seemed that Mary looked better and better as the time went by and Honey did too. Thing is, they'd started out looking real good in the first place.
Being from Texas, I already knew that black women's insides were as pink as any and felt just as good and sometimes even better than white women's did. I didn't know where Jim fit into the picture but it hadn't seemed like he was anything special to Mary nor she to him. I'd have to see how things worked themselves out, but if I got a chance to plow Mary's furrow I'd probably jump at it. Same thing for Honey if it came up. She was still a little young but she was older than Helen's girls and she sure looked like she could do the job already.
Things were a little awkward around suppertime; at least they seemed to be for Helen and Mary. I could almost feel Helen thought I should eat with them, the white folks, and I could also see Bill had made sure already that it wouldn't come up. Mary was more confused than they were because she didn't know where to feed me. It was clear that she thought I'd be offended by having to eat with the niggers but I smoothed things over by easing my way right in among 'em.
Bill clearly hadn't counted on that and he gave me sort of a stern look. I acted like I didn't even see him over there and I was actually glad to be eating with Jim, Mary, and Honey. They wouldn't say a word about my manners, I knew, and I also knew I could learn a lot more about the shape of things talking to them at meals than I could have talking to Bill, Helen, and the girls. Besides, I knew damned well I wouldn't be getting a chance to fuck Helen or her twins and I still had hopes for Mary or Honey or both. At least eating with them I might find out exactly where Jim fit into the picture.
There wasn't nearly as much talk around supper as I'd hoped for tonight and I figured it would take a while for them to get used to being around me. The food was damned good though and I dug in. If Bill had come over right after supper and told me that he was going to have to cut my pay in half I wouldn't have made a single squawk, it was that good.
After the meal was over I tried to talk to Jim a little while Mary and Honey were cleaning things up and putting them away. It was like pulling teeth and I knew it'd be a job getting him to come around. I'd have plenty of time to do it though, cause it was a long trail we'd be starting soon.
I heard some singing and talking get started about an hour after sunset and it got a little louder and louder as time went on. Sounded like quite a few were having a little get together and passing around some whiskey tonight. It was probably because we'd be leaving soon and I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be an every night thing once the traveling started. I could practically guarantee that it wouldn't happen for the first four or five nights after we began because people would be too tired and sore, at first anyway. About ten I unrolled my blanket under the third wagon to go to sleep.
"Is you gonna sleep out on the ground Mr Frank?" Jim asked me after coming over.
"I planned on it, you got a better place in mind?" I asked him since I knew that Mary and Honey were sleeping in the second wagon and that this third one was piled so full of crap it would be a bitch to find a comfortable place. When I asked it I knew that Jim hadn't really thought things through before he asked.
"Well I guess it would be trouble to sleep in this wagon while it's still so full. Don't you think it'd be better if you was to sleep under that second wagon? The one that Mary and Honey are in?" he asked.
"It don't matter to me Jim whether you or I sleep under it. I do want to sleep under one of them though in case there is a heavy dew in the morning."
"It wouldn't be right for me to sleep under the other wagon with those women in it Mr Frank, it just wouldn't be right," he said.
"Whatever you think best is fine with me Jim," I told him, and took up my blanket to move.
At least I had a pretty good idea now that Jim wasn't doing any business in Mary's bush. I spread my blanket again and lay down for the night. I was just about asleep when I heard some movement above me and then heard somebody splashing piss into a chamber pot. I hoped they didn't spill it.