Thieves Of Mercy

FIVE

Captain Lee:… I must begin by saying that we were preparing for evacuation [of Norfolk] 10 or 12 days before it took place. General Johnston… was fearful that the abandonment of the Peninsula would necessitate the evacuation of the navy yard.

INVESTIGATION OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT, CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA

Wendy let Molly lead the way to the train station. More than lead, Molly seemed to tow her along, like a tug with a ship on the hawser. It was not the first time Wendy had felt that way, like an awkward, wind-bound ship to Molly’s nimble, powerful towboat. That was how frenetic Molly could be. Even when her aunt was not physically pulling her by the arm, Wendy felt dragged along by the vortex of her energy.

They walked to the train depot. It was pointless to try to get transportation. That much was clear once they maneuvered through the smaller side streets in which Molly’s house was hidden and came out on Water Street. Streetcars stood abandoned, their traces lying empty before them as if in surrender. Wagons heavy loaded with furniture and children, entire households, rattled for the roads north to Richmond. The waterfront was crowded with steamboats and sailing vessels, fishing smacks, coasting schooners, all scrambling to get under way. It was the Exodus, minus Moses, minus the hope of a Promised Land.

“I am not optimistic, dear, about what we will find at the train depot,” Molly said, but her lack of optimism did not slow her down. They walked down the dark street, the river to their east, brick buildings like a wall beside them. Wendy felt the weight and steady thump of the gun on her thigh and she liked the sensation. She remembered Samuel’s hand running over that same spot of skin.

They were still a block distant from the train station when they were forced to slow down by the wide stream of people all flooding in the same direction. People hustled forward with hands straining to grip bulging bags, packages held under arms. Carts were chockablock in the road, and all the drivers could do was yell and curse at one another because there was no place for any of them to go. On the sidings, which Wendy could occasionally glimpse between the brick and wooden buildings, train cars jerked and stopped, rolled and stopped, to the hiss of steam and the rumble of iron wheels on tracks.

The crowd grew denser as they approached the station, the center of the universe of flight, and progress slowed until it was near a standstill, a mere shuffling toward the steps of the clapboard-sided building.

“Molly, this is hopeless,” Wendy said, speaking loudly to be heard over the mass of sound from the crowd, the carts, and the trains.

“Perhaps,” Molly said. “Let’s get inside and see. I know some people. They might help.”

“But how will we ever…” It did not seem possible that they could even get into the station, but before she could finish her question, Molly advanced, moving like a fox through the undergrowth, slipping sideways through gaps in the throng, exploiting every tiny opening in the pack of refugees. Her elbows flailed like offensive weapons, her carpetbag a battering ram, opening the way with just enough subtlety that the people she pushed past could dismiss the assault as an accident, if they were feeling charitable. Most of them, of course, were not feeling charitable, but by the time the curse left their lips, Molly was well past them.

Wendy could do nothing but follow close behind, keeping in Molly’s wake, stepping along before the parted waters closed up again.

For all of Molly’s aggression, it still took them fifteen minutes to cover the hundred yards from the edge of the crowd to the platform of the station, where the real chaos was taking place. The bedlam in the streets did not compare to the insanity on the platform, with men pushing and shoving for trains, packing aboard until the number of people jammed into each car was laughable, and then a few more shoving in.

They were soldiers mostly, gray-clad, carrying packs and rifles. Officers in frock coats with swirls of gold on sleeves, sergeants shouting in hoarse voices. If there was some order to it all, Wendy could not see it.

Why are the soldiers getting on the trains? she wondered. If indeed the Yankees were coming to Norfolk, shouldn’t the soldiers be there to meet them?

Molly stopped at an office door, a nondescript door that would pass unnoticed if one were not looking for it. She knocked, hard, waited, knocked again. They waited. Molly let out a breath of exasperation.

“Who are we looking for?” Wendy asked. The night was growing more bizarre, with her slightly eccentric but generally harmless aunt now displaying resources and a determination that Wendy had never seen before.

“Alvan Reid. The stationmaster. But he seems to be-”

The door opened and a man in his mid-forties or so, a very haggard-looking man in shirtsleeves and unbuttoned vest, his thick brown hair wild, his moustache slightly askew, peered out uncertainly, like an animal peeking out of its hole to see if it is safe to come out, if the dogs are gone. He saw Molly and his face brightened a bit, or at least for an instant looked less miserable, and he opened the door wider and waved them in.

It was quieter in the office, the din of the platform muted a bit by the thin walls. “Molly, it is grand to see you, but you can forget it.”

“Forget it? Alvan, dear, you do not even know why I am here.”

“Certainly I do. You’re looking for a seat on a train out of here. It has been the same all day. But I fear the army has taken over all the trains. There are only soldiers riding tonight, and those who have managed to associate themselves with the army in some way.”

Wendy spoke at last. “But why are the soldiers leaving? If the Yankees are coming, shouldn’t the soldiers stay?”

Alvan looked at Wendy as if he was surprised she could speak. “Soldiers are going to Richmond. The Union Army is on the Peninsula and marching for Richmond, and all the troops around are being sent there to defend it. Leave us to the Yankees, we don’t matter, they need every man to protect the damned politicians in Richmond.”

“Now, Alvan,” Molly continued, her tone soft and persuasive, “I know these soldiers are taking up a lot of room, but surely there’s-”

“I said forget it, Molly, I meant forget it. It’s out of my hands. The damn army’s taken over the platform and they’re deciding who goes and who doesn’t. I’m just trying to keep the trains running, and even that’s more than I can handle.”

He reached out a hand, laid it on Molly’s shoulder, and when he spoke again his tone was different. Kinder. “You know I’d help you if I could, Molly. You before any of the others come see me today, and there’s been a power of ’em. But there’s nothing I can do.”

Molly nodded, resigned. “Very well. Thank you, Alvan, I know you’d help if you could. Godspeed.” She turned to Wendy. “Let’s go, dear, we’ll have to find some other way out of town.”

They pushed their way off the platform and out of the station, and the going was a bit easier moving against the crowd than pushing through it. They didn’t even try to speak until the station was two blocks behind them and the mob sparse enough for them to walk side by side.

“Well, that was a lot of effort for nothing,” Molly said. “I’m sorry, dear.” She was still walking with purpose.

“It’s quite all right, Molly. How do you happen to know the stationmaster?”

“Oh, you know how it is, one meets people…”

“I see,” Wendy said, though she didn’t. Wendy had never had that capacity. Too abrasive, too forward, she rejected people before they rejected her. She had somehow always thought her aunt the same way. They were, were they not, the closest in temperament of all the family?

Perhaps not.

There seemed to be so many truths that Wendy was now finding were not true at all.

They walked back the way they had come, past the side road that led to Molly’s house, and continued on. “There are other ways out of town,” Molly was explaining. “But not by road. We can’t very well walk, and I suspect the roads are completely jammed with wagons and such and they’ll all just sit there until the Yankees come and shoo them all home.”

“Yes,” Wendy said. What else could she say?

They walked in silence for a while, and soon they were walking by the ten-foot-high brick wall that separated the town of Portsmouth from the shipyard. The shipyard was generally called the Norfolk Navy Yard, though it was not in Norfolk. Its official name was the Gosport Naval Shipyard, though it was not in Gosport either, but rather Portsmouth.

They came at last to the wide wrought-iron gate that marked the entrance to the shipyard. They were accustomed to seeing guards there, bored-looking teenagers in butternut, leaning on their rifles or on the wall. But not tonight. Now there was a detail of a dozen soldiers and a lieutenant in charge of them, and they looked as if they were taking their duty very seriously.

Not so seriously, however, that they could resist a few appreciative glances as Molly, and Wendy behind her, came to a halt in front of them.

The lieutenant stepped forward, gave a little bow, doffed his hat. “Ladies, how may I assist?”

“I would like to see Captain John Tucker, of the navy,” Molly said, very businesslike. “Is he within?”

The lieutenant smiled. “I believe he is within, ma’am, but he’s a bit busy right now.”

“He will see me. Please inform him that Molly Atkins is at the gate.”

Molly stopped, as if no more need be said. The lieutenant began to smile again, amused and patronizing, and then the smile died as the possibility dawned on him that Molly was something more than a camp follower. He hesitated; his eyes shifted left and right. He made a decision. “Johnson, go and find Captain Tucker. Tell him there is a Molly Atkins here.”

Johnson saluted and ran off into the dark shipyard. “So, Lieutenant,” Molly said, and her voice was all sweetness now, “whatever is your name?”

There were questions that Wendy wanted to ask, questions piled on questions, going right back to Molly’s brandishing that first pistol, but she could not ask them, standing there in front of the navy yard. In any event, Molly gave her no chance as she carried on her flirtation with the lieutenant.

By the time Johnson returned with a naval officer following behind, the lieutenant would have torn off his right arm if Molly had asked him to.

“Mo-Miss Atkins, a pleasant surprise.” Captain Tucker was tall, with dark hair and long side whiskers that ran up into his moustache and along the side of his mouth, so that only the hair on the chin was missing to make it a full beard. He bowed, took Molly’s proffered hand.

“Captain, the lieutenant here has been most gracious, but is there a place we might speak?”

Tucker threw a glace back over his shoulder. Lights were moving like fireflies in the shipyard, and a world of noise was coming out of the dark, men shouting orders, large things moving, the sounds of a shipyard being dismantled.

“Ah, yes, I suppose…” Tucker said. “Won’t you follow me?”

“Certainly. Wendy, may I present Captain John Tucker? Captain, this is my niece, Wendy Atkins.”

Tucker nodded, too distracted to take any great notice. The lieutenant barked, “Johnson, Quigley, get the ladies’ bags!”

The soldiers snatched up the carpetbags as Tucker led the way into the shipyard. Molly turned to Wendy and said, sotto voce, “You can see they don’t call Captain Tucker “Handsome Jack” for nothing.”

Wendy smiled, nodded, followed behind Molly, unsure of how a rash decision just a few hours before had led her to that place.

They crossed the cobblestone-paved ground, and the farther they got into the yard, the more pronounced the sound of chaotic flight. It was the same within the walls of the yard as it was in the town outside, except that the chaos in the navy yard had more of a feel of organization. Methodical chaos.

“They reckon the Yankees’ll be here any day,” Tucker explained as they walked. “We could defend this yard if we wanted to, but Richmond doesn’t believe it, so we’re taking everything that can be moved and we’ll leave the rest.” He shook his head. “Absolutely shameful.”

They came at last to a brick building, an office building, and Tucker led them inside, down a hallway lit with a series of lamps, into what Wendy assumed was his own office, a cluttered desk, papers piled on chairs, on top of file drawers. A young midshipman was pulling armfuls of documents from the drawers and stuffing them into crates on the floor.

“Fletcher, leave us for a minute,” Tucker said and the young man disappeared.

Tucker cleared off two chairs, gestured, sat behind his desk.

“All right, Molly,” he said.

“John…” Molly paused after the familiar address, gave the name a teasing quality. “Wendy and I are trying to get out of Norfolk. Before the Yankees arrive. There’s no getting on the trains, and the roads are impossible.”

For a moment they were silent, the implied request hanging in the air. Then Tucker said, “Do you want me to get you on board a naval vessel? Molly, you can’t possibly think-”

“Not a naval vessel, silly. Surely there are tugs and transports and things. What are you using to carry all your loot to Richmond?”

“Well, there are transports, but-”

“John…” Again Molly paused, and Wendy could only shake her head in admiration. Molly could do with words what Wendy strove to do with painting, applying the subtlest shading, pulling nuance out of the mundane, infusing every bit of it with meaning that was clear to anyone alert and intelligent enough to grasp it.

“John, you know it would not be good for the Yankees to find me here.”

Tucker was silent for a moment. “No,” he admitted at last, and Wendy understood enough of the conversation to realize she was not really following it. Why wouldn’t it be good? Are the Yankees going to rape and pillage? Surely they would not, and even if they did, why should Molly think she warranted special treatment? And why might Tucker agree?

“But Molly, I don’t think the Yankees will be looking… for you… in particular.”

Molly sighed. “I would not have thought so a month ago. Now…?”

No, Wendy thought, they are having a conversation on an entirely different level, like they’re talking in code. She looked at her aunt, with her lovely full lips, her little nose in profile, and wondered who the hell she was.

Tucker shook his head. “Molly, I understand your situation, but you must understand mine. There is just no possibility-”

Footsteps clattered down the hall outside and the fragile tension of their negotiation collapsed as Tucker turned his head to the closed door. A fist rapped on the frame.

“Come,” Tucker called. Wendy saw a cloud of irritation sweep across Molly’s face, and then she resettled herself, adjusted her skirts, and with that resettling, her face fell back into its usual expression, one nearly devoid of emotion, save for a slightly pleasant, not too inquisitive look. It was the expression Wendy had fixed in her mind when she thought of Molly. Now she wondered if perhaps even that expression carried more nuance than she had ever guessed at.

The door opened, and a man in the frock coat and cap of a Confederate Navy lieutenant entered, saluted. A handsome man, early thirties, perhaps, with a bold dark moustache the same color as his dark brown eyes. “Sir, I’m back from Sewell’s Point.”

“Tell me what’s happening,” Tucker said. The lieutenant’s eyes darted at the two women. “Molly Atkins, Wendy Atkins,” Tucker added, “may I present Lieutenant Asa Batchelor? Go ahead, Lieutenant, it’s all right.”

“Ah, yes, sir…” Batchelor began, unsure. “The Federals opened up a little after noon and the forts replied as best they could but of course they’re all but deserted. The Federals continued until the Virginia came up, around two-thirty.”

CSS Virginia . Wendy knew her well. Everyone around Norfolk did. Since March of that year, so did everyone in the Western world. She was an ironclad man-of-war, a battery of ten heavy guns housed in a nearly impregnable casemate, built on the hull of the former United States steam frigate Merrimack .

A month before, she had mauled the Federal blockading fleet in a day-long, bloody rampage, had been absolute master of Hampton Roads until the Union ironclad Monitor arrived. Since that day, it had been an uneasy stalemate between the two novel ships.

“Was the Monitor there?”

“Yes, sir. Monitor and four of their smaller steamers. They did considerable damage to the fort. Set the barracks on fire. Reckon they’re still burning. As soon as Virginia steamed up, well, they all up-anchored and skedaddled back across the Roads.”

Tucker nodded. “No fight?”

“No, sir. Monitor doesn’t care to tangle with the Virginia anymore, it seems.”

Tucker nodded again. “No troops? Did they seem as if they were interested in putting troops ashore?”

“No, sir, not that I could see. No boats from any of the ships. Guess maybe they were just testing the strength of the forts on the point.”

Tucker frowned. Molly spoke. “Whatever is the matter, Captain Tucker?” It sounded silly, a woman and a civilian asking after military affairs, and so it seemed odder still when Tucker answered her with no hint of condescension.

“The Federals are going to put men ashore somewhere, and soon, I imagine. We need to keep Virginia safe, she’s the most powerful weapon we have. We can’t afford to let her get trapped between the Yankees ashore and the Yankee fleet in the Roads.”

“So send her away,” Molly said. “Send her up the James to Richmond. Defense of the river will be as important as the defensive lines on shore.”

“We can’t.” Tucker smiled. “We need her here. She’s the most powerful weapon we have. Besides, Virginia might be able to stop the Yankees from taking Norfolk. McClellan nearly canceled his whole campaign for fear of Virginia.”

“The Yankee soldiers are only vulnerable to Virginia when they are landing,” Molly said. “She can do nothing to them once they are ashore. What you need to know is when and where the Yankees will land, so you can stop them, or at least hold your beastly iron ship here until the last moment.”

“Exactly.”

“Well,” Molly said, as if the answer was obvious, “why don’t you ask me to find out for you?”

Tucker leaned back in his chair, regarded Molly for a moment. “I thought you wanted to get out of Norfolk,” he said at length. “Now you’re offering to stay?”

“I’ll stay long enough to tell you when and where the Yankees will arrive. I’ll find that out in exchange for your promise that Wendy and I are on the boat that takes you out of here.”

Tucker looked at Batchelor. Batchelor looked baffled, and Wendy was glad to have company in her confusion.

“I don’t know…” Tucker said. “If you were going to New York, perhaps. But you’re too well known around here, particularly among the navy men. You said yourself you wouldn’t be safe-”

Molly dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “I’ll be safe, don’t you worry. I have Wendy here, and Wendy”-Molly’s voice dropped to a whisper-“has a gun!”

Tucker laughed and then Batchelor laughed and finally Wendy thought she saw the humor in it and she laughed too. And then Tucker said, “Very well, Miss Atkins, if you reckon you can fulfill your part of the bargain, you have a deal. What do you need?”

“Well”-Molly ran an appreciative eye over Lieutenant Batchelor-“why don’t you give me this handsome young officer and let him attend to my needs?”

“Very well,” Tucker said. “Lieutenant, please attend to Miss Atkins. Get her whatever she wants, within reason.”

“Ah… yes, sir,” Batchelor said.

“Good.” Molly stood with the satisfied air of someone who has won an auction. “Let’s get moving. Wendy, come with me, darling.”

Wendy stood more slowly. “Where are we going?”

“I’m not entirely certain, dear,” Molly said, “but I suppose we’ll go and ask those vile Yankees what their intentions are.”