Johnny and Captain Osborne prepared for their journey south by drawing Confederate uniforms from the quartermaster and equipping themselves with sidearms and sabers carried by Confederate cavalry. False documents prepared by the trained forgers on the clerical staff would identify them as members of a rebel scout unit on special detail. Osborne became Major Leland of a Confederate secret reconnaissance unit, Johnny as Sergeant Hawkins, the major’s aide. These would provide safe passage through Confederate guard posts and encampments en route to Richmond. Roger received the uniform with the appropriate insignia of his assumed rank. Johnny found a gray cavalry uniform emblazoned with gold sergeant stripes. They began their journey wearing their regulation Union uniforms. Each packed his rebel grays in his saddle bag. Setting out on horseback, they hoped to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, now in Union hands after its capture by Sedgwick’s forces in May of 1863. Johnny, unaccustomed to horseback, still ached from the ride back to headquarters from Baltimore and residual pain from his wound, but bore the discomfort stoically.
The one hundred mile journey to Richmond took more than two days. They stopped south of Fredericksburg to rest, water and feed their horses and made camp there, eating rations provided by the quartermaster at their home base in Fairfax Courthouse. When clear of Union lines they paused to change into Rebel gray assuming their bogus identities. South of Fredericksburg their forged document and authentic uniforms passed them successfully through rebel checkpoints along the way. Their cover story that they carried dispatches for Confederate Army headquarters in Richmond convinced any inquisitive patrols they encountered of the legitimacy of their mission.
Before arriving in Richmond they found a place to bivouac outside of town. At dawn after a meal of cold rations and water from their canteens, they set out to locate Anna Gables’ home on Marshall Street in the Chimborazo Hill section of the city. After scouting the area and finding an abandoned barn nearby, they kept watch from the hayloft until Anna left her house on foot carrying a basket to appear as if she had an errand to run. A petite woman with plain features, Anna wore a bonnet and a frequently-mended cloth coat. Leaving their horses tethered out of sight, with hay and a water trough nearby, Johnny and Roger followed her for some distance. When the woman neared the center of the city close to Confederate headquarters, Roger approached her. Johnny kept watch for anyone close who might express curiosity about what they did.
“Ma’am, I’m Major Leland, Confederate Army,” Roger began. “I’d like to examine what you’re carrying in the basket.”
“Sir,” she exclaimed, “What I carry is none of your business.”
“We have information that you may be an agent of Northern spies.”
“What nonsense, keep your hands off me. You have no idea of the secrecy of my errand. I’m on my way to headquarters right now. If you don’t leave me be I shall …”
Roger seized the basket from her arm while Johnny stepped forward and took her other arm to distract her attention. A quick movement of Roger’s hands replaced the message she carried with a bogus paper they had prepared in advance. She pulled her arm away from Johnny in indignation.
Roger pretended to scrutinize the switched document.
He said: “We’ll accompany you to the chief provost’s office. We’ll let him decide whether your errand is a legitimate one.”
A few short blocks later, Roger and Johnny entered the provost’s headquarters building, into an office used as a reception area, dark and shabbily furnished. Roger asked to speak with General Winder. A uniformed clerk at a desk told them that the General had left on military business. “Then let us speak to an officer in charge.”
An elderly officer, balding and stoop-shouldered, appeared, summoned from an inner office. “I’m Lieutenant Rice, the deputy provost in the General’s absence. How may I help you?”
“We believe this woman was about to deliver a misleading message to army headquarters. We’ve brought her here to be questioned,” Osborne said, assuming his most official tone of voice with as much Southern inflection as he could muster. He produced the switched document and handed it to the lieutenant. “Please look into this. We have urgent business elsewhere. It may be that this woman is in the pay of the enemy.”
The lieutenant, too old for duty in the field but pressed into service to perform clerical tasks in the provost’s office, took the document.
“Very well,” he said. “We’ll look into it. How did you come to discover this apparent treachery?”
“We saw her accept this from a very disreputable looking villain whom we took to be a Yankee agent. He fled before we could apprehend him but not before he passed this suspicious report to this woman, so we brought her here.”
Anna protested again. “Nothing of the kind happened. I was on my way to headquarters with an urgent dispatch.” The tone of her voice verged on panic.
The lieutenant took a writing tablet and a pen: “May I have your names, please?”
“I’m Major Leland and this is my aide, Sergeant Hawkins,” Osborne replied.
The lieutenant wrote each name with a halting hand.
“Thank you, Major,” the old lieutenant said. “We’ll contact someone at Army Command and get to the bottom of this.”
“We can’t stay to await the outcome. The sergeant and I are on the way to the front on a scouting mission. I hope we’ve helped uncover a Yankee spy.”
“This is nonsense,” Anna screamed.
“There, there, miss,” Lieutenant Rice said. “We’ll get this straightened out if what you say is true.”
“Don’t let them leave,” Anna pleaded.
The door to the tiny outer office slammed shut.
“They’ve already gone I’m afraid. When General Winder comes back we’ll sort this out,” the elderly officer assured her.
Walking briskly, Roger and Johnny hastened to Anna Gables house to find Letitia. When they reached the front door of the house Roger told Johnny to keep a watchful eye for any immediate pursuit. He stepped to the front door and knocked loudly. Anna’s sister Rosalie answered the knock. A tall, gaunt woman, she scarcely resembled her younger sister.
“May I help you, sir?” she asked.
“I’d like to speak to Letitia Barr, if I may,” Roger announced, making the request sound as official as possible.
A voice from within the house called out: “Who is it, Rosalie?”
“It’s a major here to see you, Letty,” Rosalie answered.
Roger recognized the sound of Letitia’s voice immediately. He pushed past the startled woman at the door just as Letitia came from the parlor to see for herself who had come to call. Stepping into the dim foyer, Roger doffed his wide-brimmed Confederate campaign hat, festooned with a gold officer’s tassel. Johnny, still keeping watch on the street along which they had come, backed through the open door. Letitia gasped aloud and in her complete surprise had to lean for support against the door jamb of the doorway leading to the parlor. She looked from one uniformed figure to the other. She clutched at her throat and managed a question in a constricted voice: “Roger, Johnny, what are you doing here and dressed like that?”
Rosalie stood to one side and scanned all the faces in bewilderment. “Letitia, do you know these men?”
“Just a moment Rosalie, let me catch my breath.” The shock was still evident on her face.
“Shall I show your visitors into the parlor, Letty?” Rosalie asked, unsure what had taken place and groping for words.
“Yes, yes, by all means. Get away from the door, both of you.” Letitia said, sensing that the two soldiers should remain out of sight.
When all four assembled in the parlor and found seats, Letitia asked again: “What on earth are you doing and how did you find me? You must be mad running around in this city in that uniform.”
Roger began: “Your grandfather has been arrested and was pressured into revealing your whereabouts under questioning. He was threatened with dire consequences if he did not reveal where you had been taken.”
While Roger spoke, Letitia stole a glance at Johnny seated across from her, maintaining his outwardly composed demeanor. Their eyes met. A volume of unspoken words passed between them in that short moment. Johnny averted his gaze and looked at his captain who twisted the brim of his hat in his hands while he spoke.
“But why on earth are you here?” Letitia persisted. “You both have placed yourselves in grave danger”
“Letitia, we’ve come to take you back with us,” Osborne finally said. His words tumbled out in a rush.
“Take me back …?” Letitia could barely manage to articulate her thoughts.
“You will be needed as a witness in any trial of the counterfeiters and as a source of information concerning what you may have learned in Canada about rebel operations.”
“Roger,” Letitia’s voice conveyed her own anguish. “Roger,” she repeated, “I have no intention of leaving here with you or anyone else.”
The blood seemed to drain from Osborne’s face. “But Letitia, you’ve been taken here against your will. You must come back with us. You had a place to stay …”
Letitia began to regain her composure. “First of all, Roger, I have no desire to testify against Grandfather. I know he might have had me killed but I choose to bear him no ill will. I have left all that behind and do not wish to relive that part of my life. I know your mother and sister meant to be hospitable but I am much more comfortable in these surroundings.”
Roger tried to interpose a word, “But Letitia …” he started to say.
“Please don’t interrupt me, Roger. Secondly, I want to leave memories of Canada behind as well.” She forced herself not to glance in Johnny’s direction. “Next,” she resumed, “how would you propose I make that trip? You don’t expect me to ride all that way behind you on a horse in the middle of winter. If I were caught with you, dressed as you are in those uniforms, my own life would be in jeopardy.”
“If we leave immediately we would be far ahead of any pursuit. I noticed that Miss Gables has a carriage behind the house.”
“I will not countenance your taking property that belongs to someone who has treated me so kindly. Don’t think I’m a prisoner here. For the first time that I can remember I am at peace. Anna shares her meager provisions with me and we are company for each other. I will not disrupt my life again.”
Roger attempted another feeble protest: “Letitia, I thought – that is we …”
“I understand your feelings, Roger, but I must insist that you leave me as you’ve found me. I cannot, will not go back. It would be too painful for me to relive those awful times, besides which I cannot see myself making a journey like that, in cold weather and especially during a hostile chase.”
For the first time since he had met him, Johnny saw defeat on the face of his superior officer. His usual posture of self-assurance had drained away. A premonition crept over Johnny that once the enemy verified Anna’s version of events the vengeful pursuit would begin, and it would start at Anna’s house. Roger seemed rooted to his chair. Johnny cleared his throat, unsure how to rouse the Captain from his distress and begin their dash for safety.
“Captain Osborne, sir …”
“Yes, John, I know,” Roger said in a subdued voice.
He rose and stared for a long moment at Letitia. She stood, stepped forward and embraced him. “Don’t think I’m not grateful for your effort and the risk you’ve taken, both of you. I know you meant the best for me. I just cannot leave here. I have no desire …”
On an impulse Roger kissed her. At once his eyes misted over and he had to turn away.
“Please hurry.” she said. “If you are apprehended dressed in those uniforms you will face execution. Don’t make me responsible for that.”
Rosalie held the front door open for them, her angular features a mask of distaste. Both men left the house hurriedly and sprinted to the barn. They untethered the horses, mounted quickly and began their ride north. The faint noise of a commotion at the house from which they had just departed reached their ears. The chase had begun.