Early Morning of December 9, 1863
Chattanooga
Eli spent most of the night working on the letter he slid next to Joe’s pillow as he slept. The supply train was leaving for Knoxville shortly, and Eli did not want to say goodbye to Joe face to face. It was just too hard.
The letter, written in his crudely printed letters, said:
Dear Joe,
When you read this I will be going back to join our boys.
You are a good man Joe and one of the best I ever met. You helped me so many ways I can not say them all. For one, I can write this letter because of you although I got help with the spelling from one of the nurses last night. I can not think of a greater gift and with Christmas coming I will think of it as the gift you gave to me for Christmas and I will not ever forget you for it.
A man does not need a leg Joe to be a man. I know lots of men with two who are no better than snakes and men with none who shine like stars. If I had a sister I would be powerful proud for you to marry her and would think I had the best brother a man could have. You will not be a burden to your kin like you think and I know that.
When this war is done and if I live I will come visit you one day and show you my hat. It will be a big surprise you can be sure.
In this letter is your mama’s necklace. I have been holding it like you asked but now you need it back so here it is. I wish I had met her. I know from you she was a great lady.
I got nothing more to say Joe except that me and Al and all the boys will miss you, most especially me and Al. You take care Joe.
Your obedient servant
Eli Craft
Ellie walked out of the hospital, stopping on the front steps to look at the predawn pink glow of the rising sun on the horizon. Nothing and everything had changed. She was going back to the 125th Ohio and she would continue the fight she started. But more than that, she knew now she was not making that fight alone. She belonged to the 125th, and it belonged to her. Together, they were going to win this war and she would accomplish something she could never have done alone. They would defeat the South and end slavery forever. She would find William. She would take back her family.
But perhaps even more than that, she had a country for the first time in her life. These United States of America all belonged to her as much as to any person alive who called him or herself an American. Because that was what she was. She had fought and bled to make this land her own whether the people in it wanted her or not. It was out of their hands now. She was an American and that could never be undone or taken away.
It would not be easy. She knew that. It might be fifty, it might be one hundred, it might be one hundred and fifty years, but the day would come when the color of her skin would not matter and her children would be free to become whatever they chose. Not for her, of course. She had no illusions about that, and knew in her heart she would not live to see that herself. But she was taking the first step in a direction that would change this country of hers, her country, forever. There was no going back because she was a fighter. This was the beginning she made for others to follow, and they would continue her fight, their fight, until this evil that split one from another was crushed forever.
Ellie shouldered her musket, put on her kepi, and walked off to join the wagon train that would carry her back to the war.