North by night

A big Negro was cleaning fish at the end of a spindly pier. He looked up as the two Yankee soldiers came toward him. He watched steadily as they approached but he showed no fear...

The moon came up above the cooking fires and shimmered behind the heat that was still held by the sands of St. Helena Island. Mosquitoes rose from the swamps and pools and slugg...

Just before sundown of the following day a corporal from General Strong’s brigade came around and handed out squares of white cotton cloth. The men were to sew them to the left...

It was dark when Tim opened his eyes, and for a moment he couldn’t remember where he was. Then a passing horseman, giving orders, reminded him of their position. Tim was conscio...

The lieutenant nodded. “As you wish it, sir,” he said, raising his voice above the rattle of musket fire and pointing to a man who was stripped to the waist and covered with gri...

The prisoners were shouted to a halt beside a two-story depot with a turreted top and moss-covered walls. An old man poked his head out of one of the upper windows and glared at...

The shriek of a whistle brought Tim to his senses. He was steeped in sweat and he shook his head and blinked at the train as it backed slowly toward him, its bell clanging, its...

The train jerked to a stop, and after a spasm or two was still. Tim groaned and opened his eyes, got up, and stretched and poked his head into the blinding light outside the car...

In the morning a warm, westerly breeze was blowing across the river where it flowed past the city just to the west. Tim noticed that a railroad ran close by. As he looked to the...

As Tim finished his game with Red they heard the familiar rattle of keys and the sound of the lower door. “There’s Bull Head,” said Red, “coming to take us to the yard.” Tim swe...

The following Monday Addison’s shout rang down the hall and the prisoners began to stir. Tim slept in a second-tier bunk. He opened his eyes and pulled up his blanket to shield...

That evening when Tim had finished working over the big, black woodburning stove he went to the Navy kitchen to have some food with Devil and Bell. He looked down mournfully at...

Red’s calm began to disappear. As soon as Addison left the floor Red pulled a list from his side pocket. He and Tim went over it one last time. Six quarts of corn, parched and g...

It was customary for at least two guards to pace the courtyard all night long. The guard changed at nine in the evening and again at one and five. They usually hung a lantern by...

Red gave no sign of waking. Tim thought, Today is Friday. He unbuttoned his blouse and pulled out a little black book marked DIARY 1863. It was closed with a tab that slipped th...

They spent their fourth morning in shelter from the rain. They had circled farms, forded dozens of streams. More than once they had ducked off country roads to avoid teams of ox...

Tim struck a match and lit a lamp on the bedside table. He turned down the wick so that it wouldn’t smoke the glass. When he had finished dressing he looked into a mirror that h...

The lamp burned low in Tim’s room. He stood still for a moment, studying the place. The door at the back must be a closet. He took off his boots and put them on the hearth and p...

As the sky grew light in the east they came to the edge of a rolling pasture. They climbed a knob of land but couldn’t see a farmhouse or a barn or any other signs of life, so t...

The men slept fully clothed on a wide bunk bed on a big straw mattress. Tim stirred in his sleep, opened his eyes and propped up on one elbow. The big, brown room was warm. The...

There was snow lying in patches on the northwest side of the mountain. The shoulders of rock were scarred and barren except where earth had clung to sheltered places, nourishing...

Red slept, but Tim was too cold to sleep. He looked up at the boughs of the sheltering tree. He gazed into the cold night sky. A full moon was shining somewhere behind the pines...