Beloved Enemy (26 page)

“Here's my hand, my little darling,” he crackled in his falsetto, “Help this great fool across the street.” He peeked around the brim of his bonnet. “Will you also take my hand and walk down the aisle with me in a church in Nassau?” he continued in a hoarse whisper. “And will you help me down the road for the rest of our lives?”

Julia's heart soared right up to her throat. “Are you asking me to
marry
you?”

“Reckon so,” he cackled like an ancient crone.

Julia touched the brim of her hat with trembling fingers. “Then I would be honored, sir,” she whispered as they turned down Eighth Street toward the depot.

Rob squeezed her arm. “Good. I look forward to my loving little wife having her dastardly way with me.” He winked.

January 1866
Alexandria, Virginia

“P
apa!” Carolyn dashed up the stairs to her father's study. Without bothering to knock, she burst into the room. Dr. Chandler looked up from his newspaper. He had aged a great deal since last April when Clara had died of an apoplectic fit following the news of General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Carolyn hoped that the letter in her hand would bring him much-needed cheer.

“It's from Julia!” She sat down on the footstool at his feet. “She's in the Bahama Islands! Oh, Papa! She's not dead—she's married! And a mother!”

“Lord have mercy!” Hettie laughed from the doorway.

A smile tweaked the corners of Jonah's tired mouth. “It's really Julia?” he asked, as if he had just awakened from a long nap. “Our Julia?” He had not said her name aloud in a long time. He rubbed his eyes. “Please read it for me, Carolyn. My eyes are a little sore.”

71 Carolyn grinned at him. “It says, ‘Dear Papa, Mother—' Oh! Julia doesn't know.”

Hettie came into the room and stood near the doctor's chair. “How could she? Go on, child, read the good news,” she prompted.

Carolyn nodded. “It says, ‘Please forgive me for not writing to you sooner, but there was little chance of an assured mail delivery to you until now. I have had many adventures since I last saw you. Carolyn would just itch to know of them all.' Oh! She's said that just to tease me!”

Carolyn made a face as if her sister were standing in front of her. Then she continued, “‘As Carolyn knows, I went to Richmond to find Major Montgomery. We left the city in February 1864, and were lucky enough to catch a blockade runner out of Wilmington, North Carolina.' Great balls of fire!” Carolyn whistled through her teeth.

Jonah leaned over. “Did you say Julia sailed on a blockade runner? But that was highly dangerous. I had no idea she was so brave.”

Carolyn nodded. “It's not fair, Papa! Julia's had all the fun.” After a stern look from Hettie, she picked up the narrative. “‘To make a long story short—' Oh, Julia, I could just spit! You should have told it all, not just dangle it out there like catnip!”

Hettie smiled. “Maybe paper's scarce down there. So, what does she say about the islands? Do they really have palm trees there like I've seen in
Harper's Magazine?
”

Carolyn ran her finger along the lines to find her place. “‘Rob and I were married on March 13, 1864, in a lovely church in Nassau Town. It's made out of coral blocks and is shaded by beautiful palm trees.'”

“There!” Hettie beamed. “I knew it! Palm trees for sure.”

“Married.” The doctor sat back in his chair. “Married in a proper church, too! Thank the good Lord for that!”

“I always thought that Major Montgomery was a proper gentleman,” Hettie observed. “Go on, Miss Carolyn.”

“‘For reasons I will explain later, Rob and I were unable to return immediately to the United States. However, we
do
plan to come back in the spring!' Oh, Papa! Julia's coming home!”

Jonah looked up to Hettie. “I think a little sherry would be in order for all of us after Carolyn finishes the letter. Go on, my dear.”

Carolyn could barely sit still. “‘In the meantime, Rob has found employment as a lawyer and business here has been lively. I teach classes at a little school here for the English children. We live in a little pink house on the hillside overlooking the harbor.' A
pink
house! How delicious!” Carolyn smacked her lips. “Could you ever imagine such a thing?”

“And about the baby?” Hettie prompted.

“Oh, yes!” Carolyn skimmed through the letter. “Ah! ‘Our little girl—' Oh, there's another girl in the family! ‘—was born on the 29th of July 1865. She is quite healthy, Papa, so you don't have to worry on that account. She has her father's dark hair, but my green eyes. She is just like you, Carolyn, always getting into mischief.' Good for her!” Carolyn cheered.

“Does this sweet child have a name?” Hettie inquired. A fond expression creased her dark face.

Carolyn giggled. “Oh, I'm sorry. I must have skipped that part. Here it is! ‘We have named her Elizabeth Ross Montgomery.'”

Carolyn looked up at her father. “Papa, do we know anybody named Elizabeth or Ross?”

O
ne hundred and nine Union officers escaped from Libby Prison on that frosty night of February 9-10, 1864, making it the largest American POW breakout in military history. It was also the most successful. Two escapees drowned while trying to swim the swollen streams, forty-eight were recaptured, but fifty-nine men made it to freedom. Among the recaptured prisoners returned to Libby was “tunnel king” Colonel Thomas E. Rose of the 77th Pennsylvania Infantry. Rose immediately began plans for another escape, but his Confederate warders had had enough of his ingenuity. On April 30, 1864, he was exchanged for a Confederate colonel at City Point, Virginia.

While there is no record of a character like Robert Montgomery in Libby, the prisoners did have inside help in the person of the enigmatic Erasmus W. Ross, who was the civilian clerk under British protection. Very little is known about this man as he died soon after the end of the Civil War in the fire that destroyed the famous Spotswood Hotel in 1870. While Ross was remembered by the majority of the prisoners as an evil-tempered man, there are a few recorded incidents where he helped some of the prisoners to escape. Some scholars believe that Ross was a
Union spy in very deep cover who worked with Elizabeth Van Lew.

Miss Lizzie Van Lew was probably the most successful female undercover agent for the Union during the war. Her mansion on Grace Street really did have a secret room over the portico, and she was privy to the breakout plans. Also, she happened to be in the country with her brother on February 9th. After the war, Lizzie remained in Richmond where she was reviled by the population as a traitor to the Confederacy. When she died in 1900, at the advanced age of eighty-one, she was buried in an unmarked grave in Shockhoe Cemetery at the far northern edge of Richmond. When some of the Union veterans of Libby heard about Lizzie's death, they sent down a large granite boulder from Massachusetts with a bronze plaque inscribed with her name, dates and the old soldiers' fond sentiments. Her home was deliberately torn down during the 1920s, and today an elementary school occupies the site.

Libby Prison was also taken apart, not for demolition, but for exhibition at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1892. The prison warehouse stayed in Chicago for several years after the Exposition, then it was disassembled once again and went on national tour. The train carrying the pieces was derailed in Indiana where an enterprising farmer bought the bricks and lumber, and used them to build a barn. In the 1960s, the barn was torn down during the Civil War Centennial, and the pieces dispersed. Occasionally parts of the old Libby Prison turn up at Civil War Collectors' Fairs and in antique barns.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to Carol Bessette, a Certified Master Tour Guide of Washington, D.C., for providing books, maps and a great perspective of Washington and Alexandria, Virginia, in 1864.