• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1371 0

in Jacob’s case, and he had reported favorably to his own brother, General Melton, at Headquarters, who had sent an order restoring Jacob to major and transferring him and his cavalry regiments to the command of General Frederick Steele, who was in eastern Arkansas preparing to march upon Little Rock. Jacob still wasn’t thinking, but one of his aides helped him put on his boots and saddle his horse and mount it, then the aide pointed the horse eastward and said “Giddyup” to it and kicked it, then summoned the rest of Jacob’s cavalry to follow, and they began their long ride to Helena on the Mississippi River, where they were welcomed by the Federal garrison there.

General Steele himself welcomed Jacob, and was especially delighted to have in his command the person who was reputed to be not only the lone Arkansas delegate opposing secession at the state convention but also the lone soldier who had killed his own brother. All the newspapers were in the habit of referring to the War as a great clash of “brother against brother” but so far General Steele had never heard of any man who had actually killed his brother, so he was ineffably glad to meet Jacob and have him and his cavalry join the assault on Little Rock, and on the spot he promoted Jacob to colonel. Jacob thought nothing of it, because he still wasn’t thinking. But soon, when he had shot and killed his first Rebel in eastern Arkansas, he was forced to think: he thought that this man he had killed was a southern slaveowner of the type who had fomented the rebellion and deserved to die. Thinking, Jacob realized that there was nothing wrong in killing this type of person. In fact, this type of person was indirectly responsible for starting a war which had resulted in the death of his brother Noah. It would be revenge to kill them, and Jacob took his revenge, killing them wherever he found them.

By the time General Steele’s army reached Little Rock, Jacob’s marksmanship and anger had become a legend among the troops of both sides, and it is said that the real reason the Confederates gave up the city without any resistance was their fear of being mowed down like dogs by Jacob Ingledew. In any case, General Steele occupied the capital without the loss of a single man, and breveted Jacob brigadier general, and sent him out to harass the retreating Rebels south and west of the city. Those he did not annihilate were driven so far away they never came back. Jacob returned to Little Rock and went to the house of the lady whom we have seen before, the lady who must remain nameless because her family name is a revered one in Little Rock society today. He took off his boots and hung his trousers on the bedpost, and afterwards he and lady lay together talking for a long time, about war, and death, and duty, and, yes, love or whatever it might be called.

That was in September. The following January, delegates from twenty-three loyalist counties converged on Little Rock and voted to choose General Jacob Ingledew as provisional governor. The following March, the people of the state elected him governor, and he was inaugurated in April. Arkansas was the first of the seceded states to secede from the Secession.

Chapter seven

No, our illustration this time around is not the governor’s mansion in Little Rock. That city, after all, is not in the Ozarks, missing by at least eight miles, so the dwelling that Jacob occupied there does not rightfully belong in a study of Ozark architecture. Our illustration is of the house that Jacob built in Stay More after he returned from his four-year term as governor; thus we will have to wait until the end of this chapter to learn why it is trigeminal rather than bigeminal, in fact one of the few trigeminal structures in the Ozarks, as well as the single most impressive building in Stay More. This was the third and last house that Jacob Ingledew built in Stay More, although being third is not the reason why it was trigeminal. We may guess or anticipate the real reason, but we would do better to wait until the end of the chapter.

Although