Candle in the Darkness - Lynn N. Austin [184]
“Ain’t you supposed to stay at home?”
“If all the rumors are true, no one will really care where I go anymore.”
Eli got the buggy ready, and they drove down the hill through the crowded streets. Most people were headed west or southwest, the only directions that weren’t blocked by thousands of Yankee troops. Caroline wondered how she and Eli would ever be able to move against the tide and get back up the hill again to their home.
As they passed Capitol Square, she saw people frantically packing government documents and hurrying them out of the building. In the business district, all the banks were open, even though it was Sunday, and people had lined up for blocks to withdraw their money. Wagons and carts of all sizes and descriptions filled the roads and bridges, loaded with trunks and boxes and household goods. Hundreds of people were fleeing on foot, walking the canal towpath out of town toward Lynchburg, carrying bundles on their backs. Ashen-faced soldiers with missing limbs hobbled by on crutches or were carried along on makeshift stretchers. Caroline saw one desperate mother loading her three small children into a goat cart. Every means of transportation imaginable was being used to leave Richmond.
Confusion and panic reigned over the entire city, growing and spreading like an epidemic. Seeing the terror on every face, Caroline remembered the story Eli had once told her of men running in fear from the giant, Goliath. Only little David had faith in God’s deliverance. She made up her mind. “I don’t think God wants us to run away in fear like this, do you, Eli?” she asked.
“No, Missy. Ain’t nothing wrong with being afraid—that’s only human. But we need to give our fear to Massa Jesus instead of letting our imaginations run off with it.”
“Let’s go home.” But even after making her decision, Caroline had to pray away her own panic as they headed back up the hill again.
It proved even more difficult than she had guessed to wade through the moving stream of people and vehicles, all headed in the opposite direction. Eli had to walk beside the panicked mare, leading her by the halter, to get her to move at all. At least a dozen people stopped them, begging Caroline to sell them her horse so they could transport a family member who was old or ailing. She turned away offers of Confederate dollars, U.S. greenbacks, and even gold pieces worth as much as a thousand dollars. She began to worry that someone would simply steal the horse, and she wished that Eli had brought one of her father’s pistols along.
When they reached the top of the hill, they saw a column of Confederate soldiers marching toward them, double quick. “We have to get off the main road,” Caroline cried. “Hurry. We can’t let them see our horse or they’ll take her.”
But instead of speeding up, Eli halted the carriage. “Jump down, Missy, and grab hold of these reins. She’ll go faster without the buggy.” As quickly as he could, he unhitched the horse as the sound of tramping feet drew closer. “Run with her, Missy. Run down that side street. Get her home, quick.”
All her life, Caroline had been afraid of horses, but she wasn’t about to lose the last one she owned to the Confederates. She grabbed the halter next to the horse’s muzzle and began to run. Five minutes later she stumbled into the carriage house, her heart pounding. She was breathless with exhaustion, but at least the mare was safe. When she could breathe again, she sent Gilbert back to help Eli pull the buggy home.
“We’re staying,” Caroline told her servants when they were all together again. “We’ll try to guard the house and the mare as best we can, but they’re not the most important things. What’s important is each other. Nothing else matters as long as we all come through this safely.”
For Caroline, waiting proved the hardest part—as it always