A. Thompson

“ Sherman. Be careful, Halcom. You must not peril your life for so worthless an object. Your military fame is the property of the country. You peril this for a chance at a dog. When your division assaults the works of the enemy tomorrow, I urge it as a claim of your country, that you shall not needlessly expose yourself.
Halcom. So much will I as becomes a soldier who would defend his country from such assassins. If I fall, let me sleep in my old home in the soil of Tennessee, whose honor I have tried to defend against the cowards who have dragged her into this infamous revolt. ”

“ Half of them fit to be governors or presidents! What a people have sprung from the little squad that first planted civil liberty on old Plymouth Rock. Brave old New England! How quickly her sword leaped from the scabbard when slavery struck at this. How the offshoots of her brain throb and flash across the prairies of the great west. How her freedom and little church spires cling to the hills as her civilization marches for the western sea! It is God’s advance guard leading the way to a larger and freer home for the poor. Think, Halcom, of the glory that is coming. The star is in the west now. ”

“ Hood. You are a native of Tennessee?
Halcom. Well?
Hood. What do you mean by well?
Halcom. Interpret to suit yourself.
Hood. It has been represented that you are a traitor to your native state.
Halcom. Undoubtedly.
Hood. Do you deny it?
Halcom. Who is my accuser?
Brightly. I!
Halcom. An assassin and ravisher of defenceless women!
Brightly. Liar!
Halcom. A coward, who covers his tracks with the knife and torch!
Brightly. A traitor accuses me!
Halcom. A blatant ruffian, who fights only when no danger steps in his way. (Brightly draws to attack him. Hood steps between.) ”

“ D’A. As God loves goodness in the human heart—as manhood admires the noble, unselfish woman, though her covering be undeserving rags—as the heart plays captive to the most generous impulses of nature—as the honor of a soldier reaches out to grasp its ideal, so do I offer my tribute of love. Zina, all these dreams of the future die with me when the sun rises over the eastern hills. Go out from here. Avoid the guard. Find the money, and fly with my mother, where you can be free. ”

“ Hood. Your line of trade?
Myers. I prefer handsome women.
D’A. And when he is tired of them, they are turned over to another master in the auction yards of Havana.
Myers. Exactly. I made $700 on the last one.
Hood. It remains for Old and New England to furnish the men, that have loaded the south with its most ignominious reputation. (Myers springs to his feet.)
Myers. Do you insult the legitimate business of your country?
Hood. The absolute freedom the Republic confers upon you has never legalized a crime against humanity. ”

“ Sherman. Indeed! When at Lookout Mountain the storm of rebel shot had melted the first line, and the reserves were already wavering, and you seized and dared them to follow their flag, rallying the broken ranks to that wild charge that swept the rebel army from its entrenchments among the clouds, it was a glory beside which the command of this army pales into insignificance!
Halcom. Then the soldier shares equally with his commander! (Watches out R.)
Sherman. But you have not told me of this marvelous escape. ”

“ Halcom. Zina, why do you try to love the man who holds your life in a bondage more hateful than death? Who has returned your devotion with nothing but misery, destitution, and the most servile submission. Who would sell your soul and body to dishonor, without one pang of regret. An assassin, 38thief, coward, ruffian; who blights virtue and crushes the honest aspirations and civil rights of all he touches. ”

“ He is too noble to do a wrong to any one.
Brightly. While he has dogged my footsteps when I leave the camp with you, and has twice incited you to escape?
19Zina. Heaven is my witness, he did not do that.
Brightly. I will have an end of this! Today he volunteered to enter the enemy’s camp as a spy—ostensibly as a deserter. He will be betrayed!
Zina. Do with me as you will, and I will never complain; but he is innocent.
Brightly. When he attempts to return, he will be arrested by the enemy, with the proofs of his business on his person! A court-martial, an execution, and the end! ”

“ Where is she? I can hardly imagine a situation in this country or in either army, that can be dangerous to a woman!
Halcom. No danger to a woman? They killed my mother when she was helpless, and, with my sister, burned her in her own home.
Sherman. Such men are devils!
Halcom. And so am I! Can you trace the maniac through Nashville, Chickamauga, and over Lookout Mountain, to the banks of this river, and not guess at the origin of the hell that is so fast consuming my life?
Sherman. Treat it calmly, Halcom. It is something that can never be mended. Leave the past to take care of itself. ”

“ A storm at night. A handsome cavalier, unjustly condemned, awaiting execution. A lovely maiden hovers near. She drugs the guard, and sets the prisoner free. Bewildered by the ecstasy of love in such a moment of excitement, both are lost in its wild delirium. They wake to an utter incomprehensibility of all that has passed.
Halcom. General, I am content if such chafing pleases you. But I am weighted with an anxiety that will drive me mad. When I can know the heroic girl is safe, who perhaps has sacrificed her life to save mine, I can forget that I am a coward, and unfit to live! ”

“ So is he a coward! Twice I have thrown my knife at his feet to defend himself against my empty hands, and he has refused!
Brightly. (To Hood.) Do you believe the falsehoods of a traitor?
Halcom. Then be it so now!
Hood. (To Brightly.) Well?
Brightly. I will not risk a life that may be of use to my country, in a duel with a man who has been condemned to death for treason.
Hood. Well said, sir! Sentinel, remand the prisoner. (Exit Hood, R. Sentinel points to the cabin. Halcom goes slowly, as if to enter. Halts at door and turns.)
Halcom. Keele Brightly, the chances of war have favored you. ”

“ Though he wears the traitor’s garb, he is still one of the iron hearts of Tennessee.
Brightly. It is this deference to treason that disheartens the army. The south swarms with men who opposed secession. The coast clear, and they will fight against us. To keep these traitors where they belong, the patriotic men of the army demand an example. Refuse, and the foot of the northern tyrant will be on our necks within the next year. As the commander of the finest army in the south, I do not believe you will disappoint them.
Hood. Let the prisoner be brought forth. ”

“ Zina. (Rising and looking at him earnestly.) Mistress D’Arneaux has told me of a good God in heaven who gave us the beautiful earth and flowers, who loves even the broken hearts of the poor and helpless, whose hand leads always to happiness and truth, whose justice is as the rocks and mountain cliffs of our old home, that are never moved. But this is not for the slave, for master beats his hands so cruelly when they have tried to do the best they could.
Halcom. It is not the fault of heaven that men are bad. As justice lives for all, so is there a counterpoise of wrong. ”

“ The world is a slave pen. Statutes never made a man free. Take in the boasted freedom and civilization of New England, are her working people more free than ours? Does the working man dare assert the rights of a freeman there? ”

“ Myers. When you will spoil the whole. (Enter Hood R.) It takes brains to run a country like this, and the south haven’t got the material.
Hood. Indeed!
Myers. Yes, sir; indeed. It is one thing to raise cotton and another thing to make it valuable. You never had sense enough in the south to utilize it. If you have, where are your mills? The south is loaded with water-power. The brains of the country are in New England and the middle states. Kick those friends in the face and where are you? England, you say? They would hold the same relation to you at once. What do you gain? ”

“ Hood. Who hatches crime, will defend a lie!
46Halcom. Who subverts justice, is a traitor to God!
Brightly. Let the bullet settle this at once.
Hood. (To the court.) Gentlemen of the court, you have heard the evidence. Is the prisoner guilty?
All. Aye, guilty!
Hood. Captain Brightly, return the prisoner to the cabin. He will be allowed fifteen minutes to prepare. You will then call a squad of men, and see to it that he is shot to the death.
Halcom. Gen. Hood, I request that I may die by the hand of a brave and honorable man. ”

“ Myers. This squabble with the free states has seemed to convey the idea to every scrub in the south that he must carry the honor of his own section on his own little back.
D’A. Squabble?
8Myers. Well, what else? Neither section has an army, or a respectable ship of war. There are not ten thousand men in the country that know a right-shoulder shift from a present. This is a fanatical mob broke loose.
Brightly. Myers, it is cruelty to a lunatic to fight you.
Myers. Nothing collapses the vanity of a ponderous presumption so quick as a ridiculous fact.
Brightly (to Hood and D’Arneaux) . ”

“ Sherman. Bring in that prisoner, sir. I will deal with you when there is less business on hand.
Hezekiah. (Attempting to leave.) Jess you say. I spose you boss this cahoot. (Turns back.) Say, you keep your eye peeled. He’s a darn pizen critter. He may try to get your guzzle. (Exit Hez. L.)
Sherman. Is that man insane or a fool?
Halcom. Neither. He is one of the rough diamonds of the army: the very first man I enlisted in the old Bay State. Brave as a lion, and keen as a razor. ”

“ Zina. I am a Halcom! This rifle shall avenge my mother’s life. (Confederates smash the door until they knock it to pieces. Then the door breaks down and a crowd of rebels rush through, 5 rapid shots from Zina and they retreat to outside, 3 men fall. She drops the old and seizes another carbine as Brightly urges them back. Five more shots throw them into a crowding confusion at the door, when she stops firing from unloading. Brightly and six soldiers rush to left front. Zina draws knife to defend prisoners.) ”

“ Halcom. She is an innocent, artless child, General.
Sherman. Artless? She is a devil! During her master’s escape, she held the guard with the ferocity of a tiger, while he took his leisure to leave. Had she been a man, I would have had her shot at once. Orderly, here! (Enter Orderly, L. U. E.) Take this girl to the care of the guard again. Say to the officer in charge, it shall go bad if she is allowed to stray again. (Orderly seizes her arm roughly and leads her away, L. U. E.)
Halcom. (To Orderly.) Tenderly my boy.
Sherman. In war, women are devils, and you can’t strike back. ”

“ A nation? What are nations? The synonym of two neighbors who fight across a fence over the scratch of a hen. Their dogs assume the dangerous roles. If the leaders of this breakup were compelled to shoulder a rifle and take themselves to the front, there would be no war. ”

“ Within an hour she will be out in the world, worse than an orphan. Who is she? She was not born a slave. You sought a groundless revenge. Are you not satisfied? My mother’s face lives in hers! (Breaks down.) If any one of my family live—looking God in the face—speak! Have you nothing to say?
Brightly. Nothing!
Halcom. May God have mercy on you who never had any, when it was so easy to give. (Exit Halcom, R, looking back twice, as if expecting B. to relent.)
Barney. (To Brightly.) Did you mind that talkin’? (B. silent.) Hey? Jist one hour, says the Gineral, and you will be an orfin. ”

“ Sherman. Well, Halcom, have the blues got you again? (Darken stage gradually.)
Halcom. General, you must not remain here! We are within rifle range of the enemy’s pickets. It is exceedingly dangerous.
Sherman. It is growing too dark for sharpshooters to operate.
Halcom. The country cannot afford to have you exposed.
Sherman. Pray, why not?
Halcom. We are engaged in a desperate march to the sea. The army is too far from its base to exist without a competent leader. If you should fall, what next? ”

“ The old General thinks she’s got the devil in her. If she has, he’s an awful mild one. Sometimes you could knock her down with a feather. The old General don’t like women. He’s the first man er that kind I ever see. Poor little Zina, she’s always in trouble. When she heard General Halcom was took, she was jist crazy. In less’n two hours she was missing, and the guard don’t know how. I’ll bet ye tew dollars that girl is off for a fuss, or else things is deceivin’. If I was going ter give any advice, I should say, that anything that weighs less than a ton, had better get off the track. ”

“ I will shoot any man who attempts to prevent it! You shall command this army if you like. (Zina faints again.)
Halcom. The poor child is dying.
Sherman. Not a bit of it. She is too smart to die! Take her to my quarters. Orderly, here! (Enter Ord. L. U. E.; with Halcom takes her out, L. U. E.) Have my surgeon attend that girl, and tell him if he lets her die, I will hang him 52an hour after. (Exit Ord. L.) I am the biggest ass in the service. If I ever abuse a woman again, I hope I may be shot by an idiot! (Exit L. Enter Barney and Hez. L. U. E.)
Barney. ”

“ An unwanted, useless thing, stamped upon in every prosperous part of the country. Even the old cradle of our fabled liberty rocks for the benefit of the capitalist, who starves his brainless neighbor for the benefit of his vanity. ”

“ Now she is cheated out of her part er the farm, and the old man is so mean. I don’t know what she will do. I’ve sent her all my wages and bounty.
Sally. Keep yer upper lip solid, Hez.; cos if yer lost to yer mother, she can have a home with me as long as she lives. Good bye. I got to get ye out, and I ain’t no time to lose. (Dashes out at R. door.)
Barney. ’Pon my word, that gal will knock the hell’s blazes out er thim spalpeens, or I’m a thafe and a liar.
Hezekiah. Ain’t she a rusher?
Barney. ’Pon me word she is. ”