Btw,
@DTF955Baseballfan has kindly decided to write another one-shot story set in this TL, and I'm sharing it with you. If anybody else ever wants to write any such short stories, they are more than welcomed
Three farmers
Rebs all think they’re winning, but we’ve got them trapped,
Soon we’ll send them running to a place that’s apt.
With their spirits crushed and weeping on their knees,
Begging Freedmen for just a few goober peas.
Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas.
Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas
“Are you from Brooke County?” Fred asked the singer, Matthias. When Matthias replied in the affirmative, Fred extended his hand and introduced himself. “ You must have been one of the many Germans who fled that place.
“Indeed I am; I even gave a little speech about how we’d chosen this free land… then I pointed across the Ohio and said, ‘Actually, we chose that free land, this here’s a phony!” Matthias declared.
The two men laughed; though they had slightly different accents, being from different parts of Germany, the men – whose son and daughter would eventually marry 25 years or so later – could tell there was a West Virginia twang to their speech, too.
After they spoke for a moment, Fred said, “you sure do sound confident; you haven’t seen the lousy fighting we’ve been doing.”
“I heard about Bull Run; I got faith, though. We were nearly all captured as a regiment in Kentucky.” Matthias shook his head. “Can’tg you people find any good generals? I wish they’d have sent Thomas, give them rebs a Trojan horse, make ‘em think he’ll go easy and then lay down the law,.”
“I’m pretty confident with Reynolds; and, our regiment didn’t fight, won’t even be anything but on the back lines this time even, unless Lee dares to come north. But, we got called up this far ‘cause so much of the Army got… well, McClellaned.” Fred spat. “I don’t know what else to call it; some of the men say his name will go down like Arnold’s.”
“Matthias shook his head. “I trust Lincoln; he wouldn’t have let McClellan stay on if he was that bad. Way I say it, Mclellan just didn’t have a lick of sense. He was an idiot.”
Fred conceded the point. “There’s talk of us going up to quell some draft complaints; I guess you just got combined into ours?”
“Yeah, they have to put soe regiments together right quick. I reckon they figure Lee’s going to do something, but what? If it’s Washington or Baltimore, the guess is we stay back, if he tried to come into Pennsylvania, it’s anyone’s guess,” Matthias outlined.
“I guess you are ready for anything.” Fred sighed. “About as ready as I am, I guess.”
Matthias agreed. “It’s going to be rough. But, we have to remember to turn what them Rebs got around on ‘em, just like the Yankees did to the British during the Revolution. Only, our goal is more important – ending that vile slavery!”
“Hear, hear! Hyou know, it’s a shame they’re pushin this draft thing so hard. A lot of boys are going to come in here and they won’t have any idea what they’re in for. At least I had some concept when I volunteered; thought long and hard about it, and what that place was all about.”
“You heard we broke free, right?”
“I did.” Fred supposed that this was a good thing. “It shows we got leaders with some sense in West Virginia. But, will they end slavery?”
“I don’t know. I probably rushed in faster, just because I hate slavery with a passion. But, look at it this way; you and I both hightailed it for Ohio pretty fast, even afer the rebs took Washington. How many more volunteers will we get once we win thuis battle?”
Fred supposed his new friend was right. He just hoped they could get a crushing win quickly.. Their service time wouldn’t be up for a little over 2 years, but he feared they might have to fight nearly that long, the way things were going.
Meanwhile,in rural Ohio, Alcide and his wife, Louisa, were looking at the newspaper. She was actually helping him to read it.
“So, do you think you’ll be drafted>”
Alcide shrugged. “I don’t know, Louisa. I guess it’s possible.”
“This says some people are calling it unfair; that it’s not our fight.”
Alcide stepped outside for a moment and waved his hand slowly to indicae the vast community of French speakers, some from Switzerland, some from France, some from the former who claimed to be from the latter – like him.
“We chose this land. I know, you were born here, unlike your parents, but we chose this land despite its flaws. So, should we not support it? Wasn’t there a famous American who said, ‘Our country, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong!’?”
“I have heard that, too,” Alcide’s friend, a farmhand also from Switzerland, said as he walked up to them. “I have been pondering whether to enlist or not; unlike you, I do not have a family yet.”
“Will you?” Louisa asked, happy that Alcide had decided he would only serve if he was drafted.
“I am not sure. I know your mother and father are happy that I have stayed so far, Ma’am. The planting will need to be done soon. If I should enlist, I do not expect to be back by harvest time. Unless it is the harvest of 1865.”
“’65?” Louisa asked in shock.
The farmhand nodded solemnly. “I have been hearing stories, through the grapevine, as I have heard them say. Reaction to those who refuse to register is fierce, because the war is fierce. These are animals, not men, some of them.”
Alcide raised his eyebrows. “I, too, have a disdain for slavery, but I did not realize you had so much hatred of it; your tone is just…” he did not know how to phrase it.
“I do not ean just with their treatment of slave, Alcide. I have heard of them butchering innocent women and children as they raid.” Morgan’s Raiders had not yet come that far, either.
As their friend described in grim detail what he’d heard, Louisa could see her husband getting very upset. “Alcide, remember, you promised…” She placed a hand on his shoulder.
Alcide closed his eyes. Once he reopened them he declared resolutely, “I will stay because I made a promise; my oath to you is important as our marriage vows. But, if they do send raiders this way, I will join with volunteers to crush them!”
Louisa conceded. “That is fair; I agree.”
The farmhand noted, “I do feel a need to volunteer. As you have said yourself, we chose this land. We may not have been made as aware of the blight of slavery when our friends and relatives wrote to us of the wonderful farmland here…”
Louisa said it had seemed so far away until the war. “France seems so small compared to the vast expanse of this country, after all. And I can imagine Switzerland was far more so.”
“That is very true. But, your husband is right. We chose this land not only for the good, but for the bad. If it is our lot to vanquish the bad, we owe it to countrymen to fight to end the evils of rebellion.” When asked if he was indeed enlisting, the farmhand said, “I will remain until we get the planting done. We have a large community here, though. I begin to feel compelled to go. As if we have been placed here for such a time as this.”