3:00 am October 27
The Tennessee River
Despite his efforts to keep to the inside of the flatboat, Eli wound up on an outer edge, Blue to his right, with Joe and Al behind him. Eli gazed uneasily at the black water sliding by to his left, so close he could touch it. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.
They filed onto the boat in almost complete silence. Although some of the men stood, Eli squatted down. He didn’t want any unexpected jolt of the boat to pitch him into the river. He was sure to drown.
With a silent wave of his hand, Captain Williams signaled the men on the dock to cast them off and they joined the scores of others drifting soundlessly downstream, screened from the light of the moon by a thin mist. The strong current meant it was not necessary to paddle, although two men not far behind Eli on the back of the boat used oars to steer.
The problem, Eli noticed, was they did not have a clue what they were doing, and their boat rapidly drifted apart from the rest of the flotilla. With a low curse, Captain Williams wrestled an oar away and piloted the craft himself, quickly setting them back on course.
Eli breathed in deeply the cold damp air and exhaled, watching the white mist of his breath float away. Although running fast, the boat drifted with little sensation of movement on the flat surface of the river.
Eli wondered what William was doing at that same moment. Probably he slept, as any reasonable human being would at 3 o’clock in the morning. But even if he did not, Eli was sure William would not have a clue that he, Eli, was riding down the Tennessee River on a flatboat set to attack a rebel outpost with elements of the 6th Ohio regiment of the Union army. In fact, had he been told this was where he would be on this date and time back before he ran away from his half-sister, he would never have believed it himself. Eli reflected life was like the river at this moment, fast moving, impenetrable and ready to swallow him up whole without a trace, for if he died in the coming fight who would ever know who he really was?
He stared over the water. The moon briefly glowed through the mist, illuminating a grey world of shadows and light. The heavy damp smell of the water mixed with the powerfully raw odor of the boat’s freshly cut pine. Eli looked at the moon, shining so bright and clear it seemed he could reach and touch it if he wished.
As they rounded a bend in the river Eli saw campfires on the opposite bank and could just make out the dark shapes of rebel soldiers standing watch.
“Get down!” hissed Captain Williams from the back of the flatboat. “Don’t let the rebs see you.”
All the men standing got down flat on the boat, including Blue. As Eli moved from a squatting position to lie flat, Blue’s elbow tucked hard into his chest flipping Eli toward the water. Not only could he not swim, the weight of his clothes and ammunition would pull him straight to the bottom.
But he did not fall in. Inexplicably, he teetered over the water as something held him suspended for what seemed an eternity, but was probably only a split second, and then he was jerked backwards into the flatboat. Sprawled on his back Eli found Big Joe’s hand gripping the collar of his coat.
Eli swung back to Blue, whose leering face loomed above his in the dark. He had knocked Eli on purpose, he was sure of it.
“Whoops,” Blue whispered.
Before Eli could answer Joe said in a low hard growl, “I saw that, Blue. It happens again and I’ll have me a accident too, and you’ll go right behind Eli into the river. I swear it.”
Blue looked back at Joe, scowling, when Captain Williams hissed, “I’ll cut the throat of the next man who says a word.”
Eli held Blue’s eyes with his own several seconds. Mutual hate flowed between them like scalding water, but neither uttered a sound. As they broke the stare, Eli noticed a puzzled expression suddenly come over Blue’s face, and he rubbed his left elbow a moment while looking at Eli’s chest. He seemed about to say something, but glanced back at the captain and thought better of it.
A cold fear gripped Eli. What had Blue felt? Why had he not bound his chest as usual?
It is nothing, he tried to reassure himself. Even if Blue felt his breasts through his shirt, he had no way of knowing the truth. It could have been anything in his shirt pocket. Blue had no reason to make anything of it. Eli quietly rolled to his knees and glanced at Joe lying behind him, staring blankly down the river.
Damn it, thought Eli, on top of everything with Blue, now Joe had once again saved his skin. It made him crazy to know he owed his life to the man a second time, a man whose family kept a slave woman. It did not matter Ohio was free soil, no black would stay in a white family if not forced to it. Besides that, Joe had no idea who and what he really was, and certainly would have let Eli fall into the river had he known.
Yet now he was supposed to be grateful to him. Could this night get any worse, he wondered? If he got shot at Brown’s Ferry, the rebels might be doing him a favor.
Eli tried to whisper, “Thanks,” but just could not manage it. Joe never looked at him, and Eli turned his attention again to the opposite shore.
They passed the campfires of more rebel pickets. A few seemed to observe their boats, although apparently unsure of what, exactly, they saw.
Even if the boats were recognized, Eli did not think there was much the pickets could do to raise the alarm. The river carried them downstream at a fast clip, probably faster than any of the rebels could ride in the dark, and even if they did try they had no way of knowing where the boats would land. Hell, not even Eli knew exactly where they were going to land.
But none of the pickets did race away that Eli could see, probably thinking they had only seen a derelict raft or two drifting aimlessly down the river in the dark.
Eli drifted on in silent anticipation, past dark trees under the misty night sky.
He heard Al snore behind him and shook his head. Nothing ever got in the way of Al snatching a nap whenever he could. No sense letting a little thing like a fight for your life interfere with that.