Chapter 9: Mack and Beau

Anton Sr. really didn’t know what exactly what to do. While he had lost all of his slaves that had traveled with him to LincolnVille, he did have all of the money that he had entrusted with Vanessa. He really wasn’t sure if he would ever see her, or any of the fortune that he gave to her, knowing that Beauregard would protect Vanessa with his last breath. While he and Vanessa were both very glad of the fact that Beauregard was able to return back home to his family, visibly unharmed. He was just as greatly disappointed by his choice that he was leaving the Rodgers Plantation permanently. That he was just there to retrieve all of his personal belongings. He put a voice to the facts that the Rodgers family members were all worrying about. That Carpetbagger’s would indeed be along to try and evict all of them, from their ancestral home. He doubted that his father could gather enough men to keep the Rodgers Plantation. When they did arrive and tried to take it away from Anton Sr., Vanessa had agreed with Beauregard and made it clear that she intended to leave and go wherever it was that he was going. What has shocked Anton Sr., as well as Anton Jr., was just how soundly Beau took control of the Rodgers Plantation slaves. Beau was also able to talk many of the remaining slaves, into leaving with him.

Anton Sr. never thought that he would ever have any of the money that he had sent away with Vanessa, ever again. As Anton Sr. really was never able to actually pin down exactly where it was that Beau was traveling to, as his final destination, that he was going, to settle down. Or how he intended to make his mark in this war-torn country when he got there. Florida was mentioned several times. So, Florida was where he set out for when he went looking for Vanessa and his money. Only to find out that Beau had really gone out west to Texas. Also, that he was somehow wanted in connection to some kind of theft, that happened either before, or after he left his post, when he was discharged, from the Army. So, he and Anton Jr. met up with an old friend from his West Point days. Anton Sr. agreed to help assist the Army in arresting his son, if he could get there early, and rescue his wife. Anton Sr. would also see where his son was living and get any information that Beau was willing to share, and also to see all of their defenses, up close. He would eventually quickly find out though that he was both unwanted, and unneeded, as well.

That he had permanently lost Vanessa as well had stung, really bad. But when he learned that he had lost her to a Slave! Anton Sr. wanted to kill that Slave with his bare hands! Vanessa claimed that the slave was afraid of her, until she made him submit to her! That made him see red, and want her dead, also. He wanted Vanessa to see that slave dead by his hand, before he killed her, though. Because she had willingly bedded a slave. Vanessa knew she would be facing death if Anton Sr. ever found about her current lover. Anton Sr. now also wanted that slave known as Mack Shaft dead, also. He was thinking that Beau should have put a stop to his mother’s foolishness, too. The thought of killing all of these people would definitely give him controlling interest in all of their assets, too.

What Anton Sr. was really hoping was that it was some, or all his money that had bought some of the property here in LincolnVille. He couldn’t believe that they had that much money of their own to make all of the large purchases that they had made. Thus, he was convinced that there had been some kind of robbery that happened at Fort Washington. Beau had to have been a part of that robbery.

Anton Sr. was used to just telling people what to do every day. He had inherited the Rodgers Plantation from his father less than ten years after he had graduated from West Point. Anton Sr. had both maintained and improved the Rodgers Plantation since it had become his personal property. He never thought that he would ever have to think about living anywhere else, in his lifetime. When those crazy politicians from the North began talking badly about our way of life, well, all of the Plantation owners thought that they were just jealous of the way we just had to feed and clothe our workers rather than having to pay them. We also never had to listen to any foolish demands about pay, or their sometimes, harsh working, and living conditions.

None of us in the South were worried until they started talking about making the practice of slavery illegal. We had bought and paid for these people. We had bred them to not have to buy as many new slaves every year. Not to mention the fact that the pretty female slaves were also used as sexual playthings. The slaves had to do as they were told no matter what the task was. So, to us, those people from the North did not really know all that much about our way of life. Those crazy ass fools from the North had no business trying to make any life-changing decisions, about our way of life. There were no changes to the practice of slavery in its current form was anything that we have ever wanted to welcome, with open arms. When the talk of secession became something that most of the us in the South wanted to do, we set up our plans.

The initial plan was to just secede from the Union and form our own separate government and country and keep our way of life intact. Though there was some serious thinking from our more hardline thinking owners about taking over the entire Union when we won the Civil War. The sour taste of that loss will never go away for us true Confederates.

Through all of this thinking Anton Sr. was trying to think of the right thing to do, concerning his future. At his age he knew that he didn’t want to start from scratch, all over again. Anton Sr. was willing to admit to himself that what he needed was some kind of instant success. So, he would not have to think about the cold-hard fact, that a very large group of former slaves, was more successful than he was now. In fact, this group of people, that also included both his wife and several of his children, were more successful than he had ever been. His plan was to simply ignore the fact that anything that he would be able to purchase would never be on the level of success of either half of the 40 Acres and Ranches, or the entire City of LincolnVille. Poor Anton Sr. was suddenly living in a world, inside of ony his head. A world that was indeed vary far away from the real world. As the distance of the land that he was standing on right at this minute was actually much closer to his beloved Rodgers Plantation. Than the world that Anton Sr. was wishing was the real world, that the rest of us were living in, in a day to day struggle, at various times.

Anton Jr. was even more lost than his father as he had slowly begun to realize after he had seen his brother’s outfit, that his father would want him to throw in with him. When his mother made his dad, give him the money that she had meant for only him to have. The money that had been given to him in the bank, Anton Sr., had immediately demanded that he give him all of that money back. Only after his mother had left them inside of the bank, of course. Anton Jr. reminded his father that this money was an intended gift from his mother. The last gift that she was likely to ever give him, as he may not ever see her again. Also, he knew if they went into business together, they would have to be equal partners from day one. But in his heart he knew he would have to follow his younger brother’s example and be his own man. He needed to make his mark in the world without any of his family, as his mother and brother obviously didn’t trust him. If he was in their position, he wouldn’t trust a person in his position, either. Sadly, he also knew that he could never trust his father if money was involved. After coming to that decision, he knew that he must go out on his own.

While his father was eating breakfast and plotting his next move with Gen. Bragg and his group of officers, Anton Jr. was selling his horse, but intended to keep all of his tack. He next went to the local gunsmith and purchased new and better weapons than he had ever owned before. Including a 10-gauge Coach shotgun, a new Henry rifle, and several hideout Derringers. Along with plenty of ammunition for every weapon that he had purchased. With both of his pistols using the same ammunition, .44 rimfire cartridges as his Henry rifle. His last stop was at the train depot to purchase a one-way ticket to California.

Anton Jr. then returned to the hotel and stopped at the front desk to pay his bill, as the train was scheduled to leave this afternoon. He had just left the bank after getting both a bank draft as well as paper currency, and some double, and single eagle coins. Most of the men from the Army had noticed right away that Anton Jr. had picked up a new gun belt and a pistol. While his father, who was standing right next to the very same men from the Army, failed to notice that Anton Jr. was now armed with more than a hideaway derringer that Anton Sr. had given him when he turned eighteen, years ago. Anton Sr. also knew that he still needed to get his money back from young Anton that his wife had forced him to give to their son. Vanessa said the money was meant to be a gift to Beau, who had asked that she instead give the money to his older brother instead of him as he now had his own money, and plenty of it, too. Young Anton seemed to be dragging his feet about doing what he had been told to do.

General Bragg sure hoped that the younger Anton really knew how to use that pistol, and it wasn’t just for show. Since both he and his men had told Anton Sr. that any man traveling with them needed to be well armed and have both the knowledge and the nerve to use any weapon that they were carrying efficiently, and most importantly, deadly accurately.

“Anton I noticed that your son is now wearing a new gun belt with a good-looking pistol in it. Where is your gun at? Surely by now you realize that every man around here is wearing a gun. And the need to be well armed at all times is very important, if you want to not only keep everything that belongs to you, but you’re very life, itself?” Gen. Bragg shouted at Anton Sr. “Well sir I have never needed more than my Derringer before. I gave all of my sons Derringers when they turned eighteen.” Anton Sr. said. “Anton please wake the fuck up man, this place ain’t nothing like back home, in the safety of the deep south! When you saw your younger son in the street yesterday, he was heavily armed, as was that damned Darkie, from hell, fucking Mack Shaft! Either of those two would have killed all of us, without any type of thought, or pause! That also includes you, also, in case you that_ _really didn’t notice that very damned obvious fact, you dumb stupid ass son of a_ _bitch! My advice to you whether you continue to travel with us or go off on your own way. Is this, you had better do as both of your sons have done, and get a hold of you some stronger, and more dependable firearms! Both a pistol and a rifle! This land that we_ _now find ourselves in is not at all that civilized, thus you can’t depend on a_ _lawman to either help or save your ass! You need to learn this fact and keep it at_ _the very front of your mind at all times for the rest of your life, even if you return_ _back east of here!”*_ That damn Civil War has changed this whole country, forever.”

Gen. Bragg called Lt. Jones over to their table. By now everyone in the room was looking at their table anyway, as Gen. Bragg had been shouting at Anton Sr. not caring who learned just how stupid that he thought Anton Sr. was, just now. Bragg now thought the man was too stupid to be traveling with him, if he had to be strongly advised to take up the wearing of a gun, without somebody having to explicitly tell him to do so. Just to look out for his own personal safety! “Lt. Jones, please take Mr. Rodgers here, over to the gunsmith’s shop, and get him outfitted like you would outfit yourself if you had plenty of your own money to do so, please.” Gen. Bragg said to the Lt. Jones.

“You know I just outfitted a man that looked similar to you, this very morning. Do you just happen to have a son in town by chance, that bought himself a gun this morning? I’m only asking because I also sold him a pistol to wear in a leather shoulder holster, also?” The gunsmith asked Anton Sr.

“Yes he was likely my son Anton.” Anton Sr. said to the gunsmith. Anton Sr. bought everything that his son had bought a few hours earlier. The gunsmith was hoping that Anton had other children that needed weapons, too.

Anton Sr. felt weighted down with all of these weapons. Like Anton Jr. Anton Sr. also stopped by the saddle shop to get the scabbards that he would now need to attach to his saddle to carry both his shotgun and his Henry rifle. Lt. Jones wished that he was buying all of those weapons for himself.

Some might think of Anton Jr.’s next moves could easily be seen as cowardice. While his father was being dressed down and sent gun shopping. The younger Anton sat down and wrote a short note that was both direct and to the point, for his Dad to find when he returned to his room, because he slipped the note under his door. Anton Jr. wasn’t sure that he could face his father with the news that he was intending to go his own way. That it was his intention to keep any and all monies that were now in his possession. Knowing this would not only upset his father, but also alert any thieves that might be standing anywhere near them. If they were to meet up and have that conversation about the money in question. Overheard information about a potentially possible very large payday would never be ignored. If they managed to both rob and kill, either him, or his Dad.

Unlike Anton Sr., Anton Jr. had seen enough between how Beau and this Mack Shaft person had acted both on their ranch and in the street yesterday. Let alone watching his mother quickly and calmly putting her pistol to his Father’s forehead, when they first met up with her. Or yesterday listening to her whispered words spoken directly into his ear. While she was secretly passing him a bank book. Plus, him taking his time to read, her letter later, like she had told him to do. The letter that was pressed inside of the bank book that she slipped to him. unbeknownst to anyone, but him. Then he just added in a little simple common sense from what all he had seen lately. The picture that had been drawn for him to see by that letter, alone, wasn’t all that hard for most people to see at all. Not being alert of anyone coming too close to him. Or anyone that somehow managed to stay too close to him for any length of time. A careless man in his position, is a man not looking at the receipt that he is holding. A receipt for potential harm or death, waiting to come to a man in his case, anywhere in the United States, these days.

His mother’s letter to him told him that he was on his own. If he ever wanted anything similar to what his brother had, he needed to take the money that he was being given to him by both her, and Beau, and surprisingly even Mack Shaft, and go his own way. She told him if he bought land near them they were willing to partner with him, as long as Aton Sr. was no longer anywhere near him. Treat this money as an inheritance and build his own world. Because in the part of the country where he was standing, death was anywhere, and everywhere waiting to grab a person. Death didn’t need any extra reasons, though greed alone, could kill you at the hands of a so-called friend, or a complete stranger. The Civil War had once again created desperation that had not really been seen since the end of the Revolutionary War, nearly a century ago.

No man walking around now, had been walking around in the late 1700’s to see this type of desperation before, that had indeed come around again, to the United States, again. Anton Rodgers Sr. would never know of how the Rodgers Plantation had really begun. Simply because nobody, that was alive today, had any idea about what had actually taken place concerning many of those huge plantations of today. The Rodgers Plantation was also included in some of those deadly beginnings. After a few generations those deadly, and nasty facts, just quietly faded away, forever. None of those now fine and upstanding folks had wanted their deadly and illegal crimes to be known to the world.

Men and women who become so used to living, their lives of comfort, at the cost of folks of all races. Whose standard of living was well below their comfort level. These facts were true in both the late 1700’s, or now in the late 1800’s. The haves of either century were totally unprepared to live their lives as though they were now, one of the have nots. Being potentially forced to become poor, or indigent folks, that they were so used to looking down on. Had most of them, both men and women, turned to violent solutions. Solutions that they would have never considered before, in their lives. They would never understand how any of these poor folks had let them get away with living the lifestyle that they had lived. A lifestyle that people like either man named Anton, were desperately wanting to get back to living, once again.

Once they were sure that they were far enough away LincolnVille they all left the train. Bragg was hoping to re-join the troops that he was told had been ambushed by now. His incoming troops were to be ambushed and would be sent back east with as little blood shed as possible. As these troops were just simple pawns in a game that they would wish that they were not a part of. In the way that they were right now. None of these men would like to stand figuratively on the sharp knife-edge that they were being forced to stand on. They were not really sure that these men, mostly Indians, were not going to kill them at some point. Even though no harm had come to them so far, after they laid down their weapons.

None of the men that, Buck and Mack had sent to join the Indians that were all around Bragg’s men wanted to hurt any of them, if they didn’t have to. Gen. Bragg surely hoped that what he had been told would happen. Had indeed happened just that way. Bragg really hoped that he wouldn’t have to return to Washington D.C. empty-handed, and then have to tell President Johnson what really happened to both him, and his as of now, missing men on this mission. To tell exactly why he was not only empty-handed, but also looking like a coward, as well, was a potential embarrassment that none of these men wanted to live with.

It took a little over a week for the troops following the train tracks to reach a town large enough, where they could telegraph Washington, D.C. For either help, or further orders as they had no idea at all where exactly General Bragg was, or what may have happened to him, or the men that were with him. General Bragg was relieved when he was alerted that the missing troops had made it to town, even though they were in sad shape.

“Report! Tell me why you men are here, rather than taking over either LincolnVille, or the ranch land owned by Mack Shaft and Beauregard Rodgers!” General Bragg shouted out to the assembled troops.

“I don’t know what the hell that you saw in LincolnVille but we were looking out with scouts in front of us while covering our back trail. By the time we realized our that scouts had been captured, we were already in the trap set for us. Our scouts were the ones that rode into our camp and told us that we were all captured. That we could surrender, and soon be turned to go back in the direction from which we came from. Or we could die in this trap. The scouts then asked us to let them get out of the way first if we intended to fight to our deaths. They waved their hands as they were instructed to do so, and four shots rang out on cue at the feet of four different men. Only those four shots that had rang out sounded like only one shot had been fired. Our scouts confirmed that they had been shown a powerfully accurate shooting demonstration by the Indians that they indeed could shoot and hit exactly what they aimed at. Also, the spot we were in was chosen for the purpose of capturing trespassers.” Sgt. Brown said.

Though none of us were harmed by any of the Indians. After they had abundantly made it clear, that they were willing to kill any, or all of us, if we didn’t comply with their orders. When we did as we were told, and we were disarmed, we were treated civilly. We soon found out that we were outnumbered and would have all been killed. They simply marked off were we were not to cross those lines. A few bullets in the dirt showed us just how serious they were about controlling our movements. We were told the day before we were released that we would soon be released to indeed go back in the direction that we came from. We were warned we would be killed on our next visit, and we would have to dig our own graves for that privilege.” Sgt. Brown said quietly looking like he wanted to shove his foot up Gen. Bragg’s ass.

“Why didn’t you just turn around and kill every Indian in sight when they let you go!” Gen. Bragg shouted out.

“Well, that trap we walked so blindly into left little room to do anything, but to comply. We soon found out that we were definitely outnumbered and would have all easily been killed. They had all of our horses, and all of our weapons. Gen. Bragg, we had talked amongst ourselves and agreed to get our release and to comply as none of us wanted to die. A few days later, hundreds of men led by Sgt. Mack Shaft and Sgt. Beauregard Rodgers showed up with our chuck wagon packed and ready to roll, with all of our weapons, and next to no ammunition. We were warned that we would be watched until we were well away from all of the 40 Acres and a Mule Ranch territories. As we may encounter unfriendly people at any time, we should conserve all of our available ammunition, and be sure to hit whatever we aimed at, if a shootout happened.” Sgt. Brown said. “We are here, but we did encounter a group of road agents close to the end of our journey back here. We did kill all of them, at the cost of two of our own men, though. We did also rescue a few wagons and four women that had been raped repeatedly. Servicing sexually all of the road agents that we had killed.

“If we ran into road agents looking to kill us in less than 100 miles that had both kidnapped every woman and killed every man that they came across. Then some of the things that Sgt. Mack Shaft and Sgt. Beauregard Rodgers has said about the men that they call, rob, and kill you, type of men. They tried to get the drop on us, but there were entirely too many of us to kill at one time. The men at the front started shooting not knowing that all of us weren’t inside of their small killing zone. They were also not the best shots, either. While we knew we needed to be accurate because both low-ammo, and slow reactions meant a better chance of being shot at more than once. Though many of us were shot, though most of those injuries were thankfully not of the life-threatening variety.” Sgt. Brown said.

“We need to regroup, because we are going to need many more men to capture either one of these men that we were sent to get, Sir.” Sgt. Brown said.

Anton Sr. spoke up after Sgt. Brown finished talking. “Look Bragg I don’t know what your men saw that made them turn away willingly. But I can tell you that when we left to return to LincolnVille Shaft had left plenty of men behind and all of them were wearing gun belts. As you should have noticed when we were in LincolnVille that even the women will shoot you. I’m telling this because my own wife pulled her pistol and put the barrel on my forehead when I upset her.” Anton Sr. said.

“We had no idea about any of the Indians when we set out on this mission. But I would not go anywhere near any of the parts in, or around, any of the areas known as LincolnVille, with less than 10,000 fighting men. With him having the Indians to warn him of your approach I wouldn’t try sneaking in again like you had us trying to do.” Sgt. Brown said.

“We also told to tell you that it would be no secret if you try and come in by train like you did before. They knew that you were on the train long before you arrived in LincolnVille. “ Anton Sr. said.

Anton Sr. had now been looking for the younger Anton for over an hour. He went to the livery to see if Anton had taken a ride somewhere. What he saw shocked him, greatly. He saw a man that he didn’t know about to climb up onto Sadie’s saddled back and ride off on her. “Hey, you there what are you doing? Trying to ride off on my son’s horse!” Anton Sr. yelled out.

“Sir, I just bought this fine piece of horseflesh here, from Clem.” The unknown man, said. Clem came out after hearing Anton Sr., yelling.

“Mr. Rodgers your son sold Miss Sadie to me first thing, this morning. He and I haggled for nearly a half an hour. In the end when the fun of haggling was over, and only stubbornness was left behind. We both agreed to split the difference in our figures. He left me and went over to the Gunsmith’s.” Clem stated, proudly.

Anton Sr. headed back to the hotel, never thinking to stop and ask at the front desk if they had seen his son today? Anton Sr. was just that deep in thought as he couldn’t believe that his son had willingly sold his horse. He couldn’t understand just what his son was thinking about to sell his transportation, like that. As Anton Sr. reached the door of his room the whistle of the locomotive screamed aloud as the train began pulling out and headed for its next destination. A stray thought passed by Anton Sr.’s mind, though it was quickly dismissed, as fast as it arrived. No way would Anton Jr. be on that train without telling him anything, first. Anton Sr. had been training and grooming this man his whole life. Anton Jr. had never shown Anton Sr. that he was a strong enough man to do anything that Anton Sr. didn’t first approve of him to do. That is one of the reasons that he is secretly very proud of Beauregard’s success here in the LincolnVille area.

To Anton Sr.’s way of thinking, Anton Jr. was no better than any of the children that he had with all of those Slave women. Anton Jr. only did what he was told to do by Anton Sr., simply because he was shackled to the thought of inheriting all of Anton Sr.’s wealth. True at this very moment, his current level of wealth was nowhere near what its level was before the start of Civil War. The eventual loss of the Rodgers Plantation that both clouded Anton Sr.’s mind and had hurt him worse than anything ever had in his life. Though likely he had enough money to live out his days comfortably. Though he wouldn’t be able to live his life as though he might be the richest person in the room anymore. Unless he was in a room filled with lower class people. That would force him to act as though he was a poor working man, for the rest of his life. His life would be nowhere near the comfort level that it was, at the Rodgers Plantation. But he could buy a farm with maybe enough acreage to make him look important in the community. He could use Anton Jr. to do most of the day-to-day work, with whatever help that he had to hire. Meanwhile, Anton Sr. would be free to look like he was as wealthy a man as he used to be.

Meanwhile, back at the 40 Acres and a Mule Ranch the south side ranch, Mack and Buck talked about what they should do next. “Buck I think we need to go to Washington D.C. on our own terms. If we don’t they are going to keep sending soldiers towards us until we have to slaughter all they send and become real outlaws. I want us all to show up wearing our uniforms and walk in the back door of the White House. To deal with President Johnson directly since he wants to meet with us so badly.”

I said. “Wow, Mack you know that is a risky course of action.” Buck said.

“It is a risk, too true. But it will keep everyone on these two ranches, as well as all of those Indians, from becoming the targets that they will surely become. Just because the United States Army was after you and me. While the funds may be suspect to some greedy asshole’s way of thinking the land was legally purchased and recorded properly in both of the General Land Offices in Texas, and Oklahoma.” Mack said.

“That would also include the newest parts of the Oklahoma Indian territory we just bought from our newest Indian friends. Not to mention most of those folks that asked us to partner with them on their lands after they left, and found out that they really needed our help, after all. We will see just how that all works out in the end.” Buck said.

“We have enough land under our control or are partnered with to be nearly the size of a few states. Yes, and everyday somebody new sees just how big that we have become. Making our operations something that many people will want to try and takeover everything that we have built up. In any way that is, or was, possible for them to succeed.” Mack said.

“By now General Bragg should be well on his way back to Washington, D.C., I want all of us former soldiers to board a train with our horses and ride close to Washington, D.C., after we meet with President Johnson. I want us to ride to a place where we have prearranged to have the same rail cars that we used when we came from the west. With those railcars waiting for us, I hope that we can ride home, both safely and quickly, too. While any fools that are out and about, are looking for us to still be on horseback. Hopefully none of them never think about us being smart, or slick enough to go home the same way that we came here.” Mack said.