The Last Full Measure Read Online Free PDF Page A

We need to get him back to Illinois to rally the people to us, and we need him as soon as may be. The volunteers are growing restless. Jobs are being sent to factories near plantations in the south and out west where slaves can do the work for less than even the pitiful wages paid up north by those who say they must compete with slave-labor. Families are suffering, folks losing homes and farms while the bankers make more money every day off their misery, and it’s getting hard to hold our volunteers back. It would be a disaster if the volunteers act before we have the means to convince the rest of the people of our motives.”
    “I remember the name of Lincoln now,” Mosby said. “We’ve seen some pamphlets with Lincoln’s speeches on them that got smuggled down this way. The man does have a fine way with words.” Mosby shook his head. “But we do not intercept every train. We must have missed the one Lincoln was on.”
    “He did not go by train,” Chamberlain said, drawing surprised glances again. “He was sent to Fortress Monroe as a prisoner.”
    Everyone looked at Chamberlain in silence for a moment, then Mosby spoke with a hint of skepticism. “How do you know this, sir?”
    “We went before the same tribunal. I was in the room when he was sentenced. Rendition to Fortress Monroe.” Chamberlain felt awkward at the way these men were hanging on his words, yet also pleased that he was contributing in some small way to their efforts. “We spoke very briefly before being separated.”
    “Hmmm,” Longstreet observed. “Good-lookin’ fella, would you say?”
    “Lincoln?” Chamberlain asked. “No. No, that is one thing I cannot say. His words are far handsomer than he is.”
    Longstreet nodded. “You did meet the man in truth, then.”
    Hancock spoke up. “Fortress Monroe? Do you know how they were sending him there?”
    Chamberlain tried to recall the words spoken by the judges at the tribunal. “They mentioned the Merrimac . They said it was leaving for Hampton Roads the day after the train I was on left Washington, and Lincoln should be put on it.”
    “A warship,” Mosby said. “One of the steam frigates. If Lincoln is as important a prisoner as we have been told, they would have sent him by such means rather than risking overland travel. If the Merrimac left Baltimore today she would probably have arrived at Fortress Monroe before nightfall.”
    “He’s there now, then,” Longstreet said. “We feared that he had been hanged or shot already.”
    “They said,” Chamberlain replied, “the judges at the tribunal that is, that they did not want Lincoln to be a martyr. They wanted to keep him in prison indefinitely.”
    Longstreet stared at the lamp again. “They might succeed in that. Fortress Monroe. Helluva strong place.”
    “Damned helluva strong place,” Hancock agreed.
    “You need Lincoln?” Mosby asked.
    “We do,” Longstreet said. “He’s not a handsome man, but he’s an honest one. No offense, Win, but it is far easier to find handsome men than honest ones. Lincoln can unite the people behind us. The people up north anyway. I don’t know about the south.”
    “Yes, you do,” Armistead commented. “The ones running the federal government have long made cause with the slave-holding aristocracy in the south. Neither of them want anything to change, neither want a free country with open democracy, and a permanent state of military emergency suits the slave-holders just fine. They will try to convince the people of the south to back the federal government, and many will believe them and fight for them for fear of revolution and lawlessness.”
    “If I had that many slaves in my backyard, I would fear lawlessness more than tyranny, too,” Hancock said. “Lo, we’re also talking about Virginia here.”
    “I know it, Win.” Armistead glared at the floor. “But it would not be Virginia I would be fighting. It would be the federal government run by the mighty and the wealthy,