Chapter 3

We received our first letter from Samson. Sam, the Colonel is trying to get us out of this hellhole. Fighting was bad enough, but it seems as if everyone is getting sick. The fighting is over, but we are still dying. So far Buddy and I haven't been sick, Son of Grey Goose comes by every morning to make sure we take a pinch of that powder Mary Eustis gave us. We are getting low and might have only fifteen pinches apiece left. God has to deliver us.

The sickness doesn't seem to bother the Darkies as much. They are called immunes and talk is they may stay and we can come home. They fought beside us and are remarkable troopers. Most everything is in the hands of the diplomats now anyway. The Spanish couldn't mount an engagement if they so desired. We soundly whipped them.

Tell Felicity I long to be home with her. Also tell my mother that Son of Grey Goose is a true Brave and stood well under fire. The clan can be proud. Give my love to James and Martha, and of course, Jessie. Please share this letter with all. I enclose a note to Felicity for her eyes only. Until I return, find me your homesick son, Samson.

The newspapers were filled with reports of the sickness and death of our soldiers. Then came the announcement, the Rough Riders were leaving Cuba and would travel to Montauk, Long Island, where they would be quarantined for a period of time. We cheered!

Came another letter from Samson on the eighteenth of August. Sam, arrived back on US soil on August 14. Poor quarters here. Not enough rations or medicine. The Colonel had malaria, but has recovered. The natives of the island are kind and do much to relieve our misery through their generosity. The Quartermaster Corps has never been able to provide adequately for the needs of the troops throughout this conflict. If Colonel Roosevelt returns to his former post, this will change I do believe. In the meantime, I long for a good meal of beef and beans. Yr's, Samson.

Felicity came home in early September with her teaching certificate. She was quite disappointed when she applied at the local schools and found no opening. She had to be satisfied to sign as a substitute.

News came next that the troops would be mustered out on September 14. I made a trip to visit Judy after Felicity was on me to go with her to see Samson. Judy was surprised to see me. "Sam, this is unexpected. You hardly ever visit. I laid it to you getting over Jessie."

"I'll never get over her all the way. I'm here for another reason. I have been invited to the mustering out ceremony on Long Island at Camp Wikoff. I thought you might like to go with me. I am having Son of Grey Goose's squaw travel with me and we can bring all of our men home together."

"What about Felicity? She will be going won't she?" I grinned and Judy got it immediately that I didn't have much choice. "When do we leave?"

Again Papa Turbin used his influence with the railroad network to make our traveling easier. We had passes on the train and when we reached New York he gave us explicit directions to his favored hotel. Although he hadn't stayed there for years, his former wife had a nephew who was part owner of the hotel establishment.

We arrived in New York on September 11 at some place named Fort Lee. We were tired and weary from our trip across the country. Papa Turbin had wired for reservations, and we took possession of a suite of rooms early on that day. We rested most of the day, but did go out to a fabulous restaurant that evening. Our every wish was being catered to. The nephew remembered that Judy had once been married to his cousin and the two boys had grown up together, so she was especially looked after.

He made sure we had front row seats at a musical that was performed in a nearby playhouse. It was a Dixieland band performed by some Darkies. The antics and buffoonery had us laughing as well as enjoying the music immensely.

We crossed a wide river by ferry, the Hudson I think, early the next morning and took the train for New Haven, Connecticut. It was a slow moving train with frequent stops as the little towns were so close together. We all had the feeling that we were closed in upon with hardly a space to breathe. The houses and buildings were so old and so packed tight next to each other. It was green though, not like the browned up cattle land at home this time of year.

Tomorrow's trip would be one of crossing the Long Island Sound by boat. I engaged a captain to transport us. He was horrified that I had women who wanted to make the trip with me.

"There is nothing there where you are going. There are no facilities and no shelter. I can guarantee there is no food. Hell, the Army hasn't been giving their men enough to eat. Better to have the women stay right here and you come back with your soldiers."

It took considerable convincing on my part, but it was finally agreed to by those with me that they would stay in the comfort of a small hotel. I went out just before the shops closed for the evening and bought myself a pair of blankets. It had been awhile since I had slept on the ground and I wanted something to lie on. I went by a tobacco shop and thought cigars would be in order. I hit the jackpot in that there was a box of dusty beef jerky the owner kept for when an occasional Indian came in. I bought what he had in stock and he wrapped it up in brown paper, tying it securely.

In the morning I was at the boat, and I couldn't see how we could find our way it was so foggy. The captain told me this was usual for this time of year. "It will burn off before ten. We will be well on our way. It will be afternoon before we round the point off Plumb Island. If it is still foggy there, I might be some concerned, but it won't be."

It was as he said and we passed Gardner's Island on our right sometime later. There were three men sailing the boat. I was pretty queasy for awhile, but I was told to keep my eyes on the distance, not close into the boat or the ocean we were plowing through. That would help. It did. One of the sailors rowed me ashore, as we couldn't get the boat too close in. Not only that there were boats all around us. I suspected there would be many more tomorrow.

The town I was headed for was on the opposite side of the island and I had to take a trail across the width of land. I came to a guard, and he said I could bed down on the parade ground. He even indicated where I might find Samson. "He'll be easy enough to spot if he is standing. He's a head taller than most of us. They'll be a trooper without a regulation hat on with him. That one would wave his hat and when them Spaniards would raise up to shoot, Samson would get them. That hat was just tore all to pieces with bullet holes." I headed toward the tents.

I knew I was getting close when I passed stacked rifles and saw a Winchester in the stack. I started clucking like a sage hen which was taken up almost immediately in answer. Son of Grey Goose had heard and knew I was here. There were other Indians with the Rough Riders, but none that were from our area. Buddy Kershaw came sauntering across the field. "Samson will be along in a few minutes. He is trying to get some rations to feed you. How are you Sam?"

"I'm here. I hired a boat to get you out of here tomorrow."

"Good, I'm ready to go home. Don't say too much, but Samson is pretty gant. He came down with dysentery when we arrived. He's kind of weak but is over it now. At least it wasn't like some of the fevers so many of us have died from."

Just then my son came slowly across with Son of Grey Goose behind him and clasped my arm. "Sam, it's good to see you." He towered over me more than I remembered. Maybe it was because he was so thin. In a way he looked younger, but when my eyes found his face, I knew he had aged more than the four months he had been gone. I tossed the package of jerky to our Indian and his eyes lit up.

Another trooper came up to us and Buddy introduced him and he squatted down with us. "Hank this is my father, Sam Jones. He says he's got a boat to get us out of here. Sam, you got room for him too?"

"Yes, if he wants to go across the Sound with us to New Haven. I got a bunch of home folk with me. Judy's here, Wee Kuk came to see Son of Grey Goose, and Felicity came for you."

"Jessie came of course. She never leaves you."

"No, Samson, she couldn't make it. I buried her awhile ago." I don't know why, but saying this started the tears. It took ten minutes before I could talk again.

"Tell us."

I gave it to them all in a rush. "Four men held up the bank after I was tolled out of town. Cindy shot one of them, but he got to his horse. The one that was holding the horses shot and killed Tom as he came out of the jail across the street. They mounted up and swung by the general store just as Jessie was heading across the street for it. The one in front clipped her and one of the robbers rode his horse over her. Smashed her up terrible.

"I was back in town soon enough for us to exchange good-byes."

"You get them, Sam?"

"Yeah. Phil, the teller, was shot and killed as he came out of the bank trying for a shot as they left. We came up on one of the men that evening. Cindy had hit him three times with that pop pistol of hers. It killed him eventually. We got the other three the next day. The Indians helped keep track of them so we knew where they were all the time."

"You kill them?"

"One of them drew on me. I found out later he was the one who killed Jessie. The other two came back and we had a trial. I took them down to State Prison and they were hung."

"Good. Any other news we should know about?"

"Let's see. James is married to Mindy Ryeback and they have their house almost built west of the ranch house. They were married before Jessie was killed so James had his mother's blessing." I went silent. Then, "You going to tell me about your war?"

"When I get home, maybe. I do know one thing, war isn't for me. Maybe if it was run right, but there were so many of us dead and it didn't need to happen."

"Roosevelt do all right by you?"

"Personally, yes. All three of us, with me as leader. Colonel Wood made us into a team and gave us a job to do and told us how it should be done. He had experience out in the west against the Indians years before. We lost half our officers though, and thirty percent of the regiment. There has to be a better way to fight a war than the way this one was fought. The newspapers made Roosevelt. I just hope he can fill the shoes they made for him."

Buddy wanted to know more of Judy. "How's my wife doing on the ranch?"

"Buddy, she's doing great. She has put twenty of the mares to that stallion and seventeen have been confirmed. Most of those mares you brought in with the stallion are big. They will drop foals first, some this year. I tell you, you got quite a ranch coming along there. Of course that stallion wasn't the only stud on the place." I looked him right in the face.

"You got to be kidding. Judy?"

"Yeah, she figures she's four and a half months along."

"What in hell did she make this trip for? She should have stayed home."

"You'll learn Judy doesn't listen well. She gets right notional." Buddy had nothing more to say. The perpetual grin on his face was saying it all.

We sat there. Waiting for tomorrow when we all could head home. I broke out the cigars and we smoked. "I hope these smokes aren't from Cuba? I've had enough of that place."

"No these come down the river from Massachusetts. Some place they call the Pioneer Valley. The weather is just right for growing tobacco."