Free The Sentinels of Andersonville by Tracy Groot Page A

back on his head. Blond hair nearly tipped his shoulders. His feet rested on the board, and his boots were worn through in places. All of him stood in need of laundering, like any soldier. He was maybe Dance’s age, maybe younger. What set him apart from other soldiers was the thoughtfulness on his face.
    “How long you been there?” Emery said.
    “Mid-March.”
    “What happened to that place? Moreover, how do you stand it?”
    “Listen, Alabama: I don’t want to talk about it because you really don’t care. All you regulars do is see how fast you can get reassigned, and that is your singlemost distinct and enviable advantage overmilitia. So don’t ask me how I can stand it, because you won’t be around long enough to see.”
    Emery didn’t answer, and Dance grimaced. He could already see this man wasn’t like the others. The worst would say the Yankees were getting what they deserved. The best said nothing at all. Along comes this fellow, who asks questions. Who did that? No one.
    Dance toyed with the end of Violet’s bonnet string.
    “The three W ’s. War, Winder, and Wirz. That’s what happened to Andersonville.”
    “Spread that on the table for me.”
    Dance studied him. “What sort of regular are you?”
    “An irregular one.”
    “You a Yankee spy?”
    “Nope.”
    “All right then. Here is what happened to Andersonville. First, war. This one has dragged on too long and at this point our resources are played out. We are hard-pressed to feed our own troops, much less our prisoners. Second, Winder. Some idiot made him a general and put him in charge of Andersonville. Third, General Winder appointed Captain Wirz. While Wirz is not a particularly cruel man, he is not a good one either. And Andersonville did not need a good man. It needed a great one.”
    “You’ve had time to think on this.”
    “No one has asked me this. I have saved up for just such an occasion. I will now present my summation. Andersonville is the way it is because of people like Wirz and me, people faced with problems they do not know how to fix. People turned back at every try because of a stupefying governmental bureaucracy as filthy as the inside of that stockade. Lastly, and this drives it home: Andersonville is the way it is because of the town we are heading for: Americus. They are indifferent. Men die, and Americus sleeps.”
    “Reckon someone better wake ’em up, and that right quick.”
    “You wanna stir up the devil, have at it.”
    “The devil ain’t in Americus. He’s back at that pen.”
    “An emphatic ‘No, he isn’t’ to that. He’s in that town, root and tree, and they spread themselves beneath his bounteous shade.”
    Emery’s lip rose in disgust. “You owning their inaction to the devil?”
    “Emphatically not.”
    “Good. ’Cause I’ve heard that tack, and them as do are cowards.”
    “I am merely pointing out that his crowning achievement is a blindfold. Only the devil could blind good people to such evil.”
    Emery considered it, and shook his head. “I’d say it’s trickin’ them into thinkin’ they can’t take it off.”
    Dance fell back on the luxurious leather seat. He stared at the quilted ceiling. “This is the first decent conversation I have had since my posting.”
    “Glad to accommodate. You have a philosophic bent, just like the man I turned in. Wish with all my heart I hadn’t done that. Wish I’d turned him loose.”
    “You were just doing your duty.”
    “How many men have died, people just doing their duty?”
    Dance’s breath caught. “Thousands.”
    Emery looked at him. He turned back to the road, face grim. “I was bound by oath to deliver him. What is better? Keep an oath, or save a life?”
    “I can’t answer that.”
    “Neither can I.”
    “I can’t answer anything these days.”
    They drove for some time.
    “Well, I’m gonna get him out.”
    He said it as easy as “Pass the peas.”
    “Is that so. Two guards were arrested last month for trying