Chapter Twenty Three

General Meade summoned regimental colonels and their executive officers to a briefing, shortly before Lieutenant General Grant was due to arrive. Grant was due to take control of all Union forces from within the army of the Potomac.

Meade’s briefing was mainly to do with integrating the regiments into the structure of the army but he could not resist, in response to a question from one of the colonels, to outline Grant’s general plan.

“I believe that we will attack Lee’s Army of Virginia while Butler attacks Richmond and Sigel attacks the railroad line at Lynchburg and then onto Richmond. We feel that should keep Lee too busy to scratch his backside.”

Daniel slipped out while the colonels were still plying Meade with inane and pointless questions. He completed a coded report and sent Jack to the commercial cable office to cable Grant’s objectives indirectly to Lee. He knew that it would take a day or two to reach Lee but most armies move slowly and Lee knew how to get his men moving.

When Grant arrived in the camp, Lee already knew the broad reaches of his plans and had taken measures to foil both Butler and Sigel.

A reception had been planned for General Grant by General Meade and all officers of majority and above were invited with their ladies.

Although Daniel would not miss this special opportunity to pick up whatever intelligence he could garner, he did not invite Melissa to accompany him as she would go as her father’s partner. He had agreed to take her third dance. It was his intention to join any card game that might be running because idle conversation around a card table often uncovers valuable intelligence.

He arrived early and seated himself in a chamber where a card table had been set up. It was not long before a brigadier and two colonels entered and took chairs around the card table.

“Major,” Called the Brigadier.”Would you be interest in joining us in a game of poker? I must warn you though the ante is a hundred dollars.”

“Thank you sir I would enjoy that.” Daniel responded as he took one of the chairs.

“They must be paying majors a lot more than I received when I was one.” A colonel said.

Daniel had collected his accumulated pay from being in ‘prisoner-of-war’ camp for the period he was away from the regiment. He had a good supply of Federal dollars.

As usual Daniel played quietly as one of the colonels, a man named Reginald, began to win consistently. Daniel watched the cards carefully and he had a reasonable idea of what cards were in play but with so few players not so many cards were on display at any time so the hazard was greater.

The deal fell to the Brigadier who was particularly clumsy when handling the cards and Daniel found that he had a two and a five showing but under his hand was an Ace, trey and four but the particularly nice thing about them was that they were all diamonds.

Daniel’s incomplete assessment of the cards in play led him to believe that Reginald held three aces hidden and a king and jack showing.

Reginald bet aggressively trying to shake Daniel out but Daniel followed the bets quietly and the Brigadier hung in also, the other colonel had thrown in his hand after the second round.

Reginald obviously thought Daniel was bluffing and he made one last attempt to scare him out. He did not succeed but the Brigadier succumbed.

Triumphantly, Reginald laid out his cards: nine, ten, jack, queen and king with the exception of the nine all cards were clubs.

Daniel modestly overturned his cards and watched the colonel’s face as his triumph collapsed. Daniel collected his winnings and said:

“Excuse me, gentlemen but I have a commitment for the next dance.”

“You cannot leave now, Major. You have to give me a chance to recover my losses.” Colonel Reginald said a trifle desperately.

“Sir, I cannot keep a lady waiting but if you wish I shall return when the dance is over.”

“Do not concern yourself, Major. The colonel has played himself out anyway.” The brigadier assured him. “I know for a fact he has no more money on him.”

The colonel scowled at the Brigadier but made no response.

Daniel bowed to Melissa and led her onto the floor.

“Dan, you have bee neglecting me.” Melissa said petulantly.

“I assure you that I have been inordinately busy, Melissa. You know that I have taken Major Willis’s place as your father’s executive officer. I have been working from dawn to beyond dusk and would have been poor company had I visited you.”

“Well, Captain Younger has been entertaining me in your absence.” She said obviously hoping to invoke jealousy in his heart.

“Captain Younger is an excellent man. I cannot think of a man better suited to you, Melissa.”

She went cold and did not speak to him again that evening.

He glanced around the assembly to see if there was anyone that he would know and his eye fell upon a familiar-looking female back. He wended his way through the crowd and then he could see her profile. It was Arabella Fairfield.

He walked up to her and bowed.

“A pleasure to see you again, Miss Fairfield.”

“Why I do declare! Captain Daniels! Oh, I beg your pardon I see it is Major Daniels now.”

Daniel glanced down at her left hand and noted that the fourth finger now sported a wedding ring.

“I beg your pardon ma’am. I see that you are no longer Miss Fairfield.”

“No indeed, I am Mrs Boulder now.”

“Not the wife of Major General Boulder, surely?”

“The same. I met Bartholomew on a trip to Washington to plead for the re-building of the ‘Burnt District’. Major, this is most unmannerly of you. Why do you not ask me to dance?”

“Why ma’am, I felt certain that a lady such as you are would have a full card.”

“You can see that I am not dancing. My husband, on the other hand, is dancing attendance on General Grant and everyone else dares not ask me for fear of falling out of favor with my husband.”

“I dare say the same fear should afflict me but we are friends of long-standing so I shall dare. Would you do me the honor, ma’am?”

She came into his arms and they moved onto the dance-floor.

“Oh, Daniel it is so good to see you again. Where have you been?”

“With Lee of course but surely you knew that?”

“Of course, but it is so disconcerting to see you in Union blue again.”

“If Union blue still distresses you so much, why did you marry a Union general?”

“I have got over it, Daniel. I must have got used to seeing you in it.”

“Do you love this man, Arabella? Are you happy with him?”

“Actually no, I do not love him but he loves me and I am happy with him since he is so much away. He makes few demands of me and he offers me a great deal. Now enough about me how is it that you are back in the US Army and have become a Major?”

“Lee sent me back. He needs all the intelligence he can get. Colonel Bridges asked me to be his executive officer and promoted me to major.”

“What? After all the time you were away? How did you explain it?”

Daniel explained how he had engineered the escape from Fort Briscoe to explain his absence.

“Ah my same old Daniel! Jonas still asks for news of you whenever I return to the plantation. Bartholomew has had the house rebuilt and I return there every so often. Daniel, I think that you should stay in the Union Army now. I have been up north with Bartholomew and I fear that the South cannot win this war. You cannot believe the arms and armaments that the north produces. Bartholomew believes that the war will be concluded by the end of sixty four.”

“Perhaps that is wishful thinking on his part, Arabella. Lee is a brilliant general. He may yet pull it off.”

“Ah, Daniel, we both have the same loyalty but I think that the South is a lost cause. Let’s forget about the war now. Tell me, when are you coming to visit me?”

“Your husband may not be happy about that, Arabella. If I am to stay in the Union Army I do not need to make enemies out of senior generals.”

“Do not be concerned. He will be leaving tomorrow morning. He says that he is going to push his way to Richmond. I’ll tell you what, come and have dinner with me tomorrow evening. We can talk about old times. Here is my visiting card. Be there at seven.”

He thrust the card into his pocket just as the dance came to an end.

“The dance was lovely, Daniel. Come back later and we shall have another but not too soon. We do not want to start a scandal.”

Daniel returned to the card room where a much more modest game was in play. He sat on the sidelines and watched the cards until he saw the patterns repeat themselves. The dealers were tending to give the cards no more than a token shuffle. A player stood up and said: “If I do not dance with my wife she will never talk to me again.”

“In that case, stay Jim, you may never get this chance again.” The others laughed and Daniel asked if he may sit in.

“As long as you have money, Major. These others here are hardly worth plucking.” The table wag jested.

This was the type of game that Daniel enjoyed. No-one was rushing to get rich quick. He could watch the cards carefully and bet up when circumstances were right and fold when they were not. His winnings rose steadily but not dramatically.

“Y’hear about Ulysses? He don’t like to go to war unless he got belt and braces. He’s shipping down the biggest consignment of munitions that have ever been sent in this war or any other.”

“How’s he shipping them? The Rebels keep bustin’ the railways.”

“Yeah, some comin’ down river, some by rail and some overland by wagon train. That’s what I mean by belt and braces. First consignment comin’ down river due to arrive in two days time, that’s why we ain’t movin’ just yet. All our stuff is goin’ with Butler.”

Daniel had heard enough. He had to get word to Lee.

“Excuse me gentlemen, but I see I have a dance coming up. I had better not keep the lady waiting.”

“Sure enough, major, if the dance is with the lady I saw you with earlier, you better be on time, that’s Boulder’s wife and he sees that she gets whatever she wants. Maybe it’ll be your head on a platter?”

Daniel hurried to find the lady. “Arabella, I am sorry about the extra dance you wanted. I have to go. Something urgent has come up. I shall see you tomorrow at seven.”

He gave her no time to reply but bowed and withdrew.

He rode quickly to his quarters to find Jack dozing on a chair, obviously waiting for Daniel’s return.

“Major, is there something wrong?”

“Nothing Jack but I must get an urgent message off to my friend. I want you to get this off to the cable office as soon as possible.”

“Cable office does not open until eight tomorrow morning, Major.”

“No matter just be there and get it off first thing.”

Daniel sat down and coded his message. He always took care to code the true meaning into guarded English in case the Yankees had broken the southern codes.

His message read: “Goods due in two days coming south on water.” Lee already knew where he was and would be able to understand what goods they were.

He went to bed and slept until Jack roused him at dawn.

With the army preparing to move after its consolidation, there was plenty of work for an executive officer more especially since the regiment had been enlarged by the addition of many spare troops from destroyed regiments.

Daniel worked hard and intensely throughout the day so that by six that evening he felt like a limp rag. He did not much feel like visiting Arabella but after such a long absence, he could hardly plead fatigue for failing to keep his promise.

He changed into dress uniform and rode to the address on her visiting card.

The door was opened instantly to his knock which told him that the maid had been anticipating his arrival.

Arabella came down the stairs to meet him. She was dressed in a soft flowing robe of satin with her hair loose and brushed down. It was hardly formal wear.

“Oh, Daniel, I should have told you! There was no need to dress up. It is only two old friends dining together. Ophelia, tell cook to serve dinner now and you may both go. There is no need to wait up. You may clean up tomorrow morning.”

She led him into a small dining room containing a table just sufficient for two places to be set opposite each other. A small candelabrum containing three candles was set upon the table and was the only light in the room. There was an ice bucket cradling a bottle of champagne.

“Sit, Daniel, you look tired. Have you had a hard day?”

“Very, I have come to the conclusion that an executive officer does not get paid enough.”

She laughed. “Why should you complain? You get paid by both armies do you not?”

Daniel gave her a sharp look and looked around for the maid.

“Don’t worry about Ophelia. Don’t you recognize her? She is from the plantation; as with all the darkies from the plantation, you are their hero. Here let me pour you a glass of champagne; that will cheer you up!”

He ate and sipped champagne while Arabella told him about the people of the plantation and how much grander the new mansion was now that it had been rebuilt to her own specifications.

“You won’t believe this Daniel but now I am one of the largest pig farmers in the county; all arising from those piglets that you brought to us to save us from starvation.”

“I am so pleased to hear that the plantation is prospering, Arabella. I have fond memories of the place.”

“So do I, of course, but my fondest are of the time when you were there.”

Daniel changed the subject by talking of the war and what was to happen when it was over.

Arabella arose from time to time to serve the next course from the chafing dishes on the sideboard.

“Would you care for some French Cognac, Daniel? Bartholomew had it imported from France.”

“It sounds delightful, Arabella. Are you sure that your husband will not miss it?”

“Don’t be silly, Daniel. He has cases of the stuff. Besides, he dotes on me and gives me anything I want. He certainly is not going to fret over a few goblets of cognac.”

“It must be pleasant to have someone who will do anything for you.” Daniel remarked as he sipped the very fine cognac.

“Well you should know, Daniel.”

“What do you mean I should know? I’ve had to struggle on my own most of my life.”

“As long as I’ve known you, you have had people that would do anything for you.”

“How ridiculous! Name one!”

“Me, for example!”

“You? But we are friends, I have never asked anything of you.”

“That is true but it does not change the fact that I would do anything for you. When it comes to women Daniel, you are not very sharp. For example you never understood how jealous I was of Melissa Bridges. I even spent time with Bill Hamilton in the hope that you would become jealous yourself, but you never did.”

“But Arabella, you went off and married a Union general. How can you claim that you would have done anything for me?” Daniel asked in bewilderment.

“Do you think that I would have done such a thing had I known that you were still alive?”

“It was my duty to return to General Lee. I am an officer of the Confederate Army and you knew that.”

She sighed. “Daniel, it is wartime. You never wrote, not even to Melissa, how were we to know that you had survived? I waited a long time fighting off a very insistent Bill Hamilton until in desperation to get away from him I took the trip to Washington to plead for the rebuilding of the Burnt District. I met Bartholomew Boulder and he reminded me of my father, the only other man I have ever loved. After he promised to rebuild the mansion, I agreed to marry him. He is very well off, rich actually, and he dotes on me.”

“I do not understand this obsession of yours about Melissa. She means nothing to me other than she is my colonel’s daughter. She wanted to get more serious in our relationship but she is too young yet, what is more I am too young yet and I do not love her.”

“Do you love me, Daniel?”

“Does it matter, Arabella? You are married to another man.”

“Yes it matters! I have loved you ever since I first met you. I still love you and I want to know if you love me.”

“Arabella, I have never analyzed my feelings for you. I do know that I am happy to be back in your company and that of all the women alive there is none I would rather be with but I cannot look you in the eye and tell you that I love you because I do not know exactly what love is. I know that I am not yet ready for marriage but that hardly matters because you are married already.”

“You are right. It does hardly matter. Let us be done with this pointless discussion. I am ready to retire.”

Daniel rose from his chair believing himself to have been dismissed.

“Thank you for an excellent dinner and a lovely evening, Arabella. I hope I shall see you again.”

“Where do you think you are going, Daniel Beauregard?”

“Why, back to my quarters, Arabella, where else?”

“Don’t be a fool! Do you think I brought you here and dismissed the servants early so that you could return to your own bed at nine o’clock? You are staying the night!”