Rebel Train: A Civil War Novel

Chapter 26

Percy looked at the trail of smoke behind them, then at the engine's tender. Hank Cunningham and Willie Forbes worked like madmen to feed the locomotive's firebox. Their efforts were quickly using up the cordwood that remained. It wouldn't be long before the Chesapeake ran out of fuel.

"How much farther to the next depot?" Percy asked.

The engineer gave the water gauge a worried glance. "Kearneysville is about six miles off," he said. "We'll need to take on water, too, Colonel. We're just about bone dry. We have to stop at the Kearneysville depot if those Yankees back there will let us."

"They will," Percy said. "I have a surprise planned for them."

"I'm glad to hear that, Colonel," Wilson said. "I reckon we won't get much farther if we don't stop in Kearneysville."

As soon as Percy turned his back, Forbes climbed into the tender again with Cunningham and uncorked a bottle of whiskey.

"Where did you get that?" Cunningham asked.

"This is the bottle the colonel made Flynn throw away," he explained. "I picked it up. Couldn't let good whiskey go to waste."

"Don't let Percy see you with that," Cunningham warned him. "He'll make you walk back to Richmond."

Forbes shrugged and took a long pull from the bottle, which was already half empty. When Cunningham refused a drink, he hammered the cork home with his palm. "Suit yourself. But this might be the last chance you get to take a drink in this world."

With Captain Fletcher out of the car, Flynn and Nellie could talk more freely. Lieutenant Cater remained unconscious and Johnny Benjamin was at the back of the car, watching the trail of smoke gradually gaining on them.

"It's not going to be easy to take the money now," Flynn observed.

"We'll find a way," Nellie said. "There's always a way."

"That won't make things any easier," Flynn said, nodding at the smoke. "Those bastards chasing us won't give up."

"The closer we get to Cumberland, the better our chances," Nellie said.

"That damned Hazlett will have his eye on the money," Flynn said. "I'd wager a chunk of what's in that car that he's already scheming how he can steal the money."

"We'll just have to stay one step ahead of him," Nellie said. "I don't trust that Captain Fletcher, either. He's in there talking to Hazlett."

"Hazlett plays him like a fiddle."

Benjamin walked over. "What are you two whispering about?"

Flynn grinned. "Well, lad, if you must know, I'm whispering sweet nothings in Miss Nellie's ear."

"Oh, Sergeant," Nellie giggled flirtatiously and touched Flynn's arm.

Benjamin blushed. He might be a good soldier and handy with a gun, but Benjamin was hardly more than a boy, fresh off the farm and naive about the ways of the world. For this exact reason, Flynn and Nellie already had agreed not to include him in their plans. He wouldn't know what to do with a fortune in Yankee greenbacks, anyhow.

"What do you do back in Baltimore, Miss Nellie?" Benjamin asked. "I reckon you ain't married."

"Why don't it seem like I'm married?"

Benjamin turned a deeper shade of red. "It just don't, is all."

"Well, I'm a schoolteacher," Nellie said.

Flynn had to bite the insides of his cheeks to keep from laughing. He glanced at Nellie, but she had a perfectly straight face. The lass was a smooth liar, yes, she was. A schoolteacher! She was a whore, if ever he had seen one. A fancy whore, to be sure, but a whore nonetheless.

The boy appeared satisfied with her answer. He looked ready to ask another question, but the train began to slow. The drive wheels squealed as the engineer reversed direction. It was no small task to stop a hurtling train. Flynn, Nellie and Benjamin were nearly thrown off their feet.

"Why the hell are we stopping?" Flynn wondered out loud.

Benjamin ran to the windows, fighting to keep his balance as the train rocked and swayed.

"There's a depot up ahead," he reported. "Looks like we're going to stop there."

Flynn stood, drew the big Le Mat revolver, and checked the loads and priming caps.

"Trouble?" Nellie asked.

"Don't know," he said. "But if there's no trouble on the tracks ahead, then it's coming up behind us."

"You're right, Sergeant," Benjamin said. "That other train ain't far behind."

"Come on, lad," Flynn said. "Let's see what all the ruckus is about."

The train rolled to a stop at the depot. Within minutes, the lone station agent was tied up and locked inside his office.

The engineer, fireman and Willie Forbes hurried to resupply the locomotive from the water tower and wood pile.

"Hurry, boys!" Percy shouted. "There's not much time."

Every minute brought their pursuers closer. The trail of smoke grew ominously larger in the sky. Percy had no idea who was on the pursuing train or whether it carried any armed men. He was not about to let his own men be captured while they took on wood and water.

"Them Yankees are getting closer," Pettibone drawled.

"All right, listen here," Percy said. "We're going to give those Yankees a surprise."

Quickly, he outlined his plan. His men were soon working to pile railroad ties on the tracks just behind the train. There was a big stack of ties nearby and the men paired off and lugged the heavy timbers and laid them across the iron rails. At the very least, it would take their pursuers several minutes to clear the tracks.

On a siding, they discovered a boxcar loaded with rails and ties meant for repairs. Percy had the men push it into place behind Lincoln's car. They coupled it to the train, then broke out a few boards at one end to make a front entrance. Percy claimed it might prove useful later.

Wilson was busy filling the water tank. It seemed to be taking forever. Forbes and Cunningham slung chunks of firewood into the tender as fast as they could. The tender was little more than a water tank on wheels, with high sides so that firewood could be piled on top.

"How much longer, Wilson?" Percy shouted toward the engine.

"Give us twenty minutes, Colonel, and we'll have enough wood and water to run clear to Ohio if we want."

"We don't have twenty minutes," Percy. "And we're going to Virginia, not Ohio. You've got five minutes."

"Wood's wet, Colonel," Forbes complained, nearly breathless from work. "They ain't got no shed here to keep the wood dry."

"It will burn once it gets in that firebox," Percy said. "It's hot as Hades in there."

Percy looked over his shoulder. The other train was coming on fast. Too fast. He wasn't sure now that he could even give Wilson the five minutes to finish refueling the Chesapeake. In any case, Percy didn't want to be caught unprepared if the pursuers roared into Kearneysville with a train loaded with soldiers.

"Get ready for a fight, boys!" Percy shouted, running for the barricade. If it came to it, they would use their guns to buy a few more minutes for replenishing the train. Getting a head start on the Yankees wouldn't do them a bit of good if they ran out of steam before the rendezvous point.

Percy deployed his men in pairs. Flynn and Benjamin took positions behind the stack of ties, just to one side of the tracks. Hazlett and Cook took the other side, behind the rough wooden building that served as the stationmaster's office. Pettibone and Fletcher crawled beneath the boxcar, sheltering behind the iron wheels. For a hastily laid ambush, Percy decided, it wasn't bad. The Rebels would be able to pour fire down either side of the train when it arrived. Any Yankees who jumped off would find themselves in the Confederates's gunsights.

The train came on, sounding like a distant thunderstorm approaching.

"If those fool Yankees don't slow down, they're going to slam right into the back of the Chesapeake," Percy warned

"Get ready, lads!" Flynn shouted.

The rails hummed. Then, like a great, black beast spitting smoke and sparks, the pursuing locomotive swept into Kearneysville. Iron howled on iron as the Lord Baltimore reversed its drive wheels and struggled to stop in time. The locomotive barreled down on the raiders.

"Steady, boys!" Percy shouted from his own position beside the boxcar filled with rails and ties. He cocked the hammer of his Colt. "Keep hidden until I give the word."

"Stop the train!" Greer cried as the locomotive bore down on the Chesapeake. "Do it now, Oscar, now!"

The Lord Baltimore hurtled toward Kearneysville station at almost seventy miles per hour. Greer had known they were hot on the raiders's trail, but he hadn't counted on finding the Chesapeake stopped dead ahead as they rushed around a bend in the tracks.

Schmidt swore in German. He and Greer had seen the Chesapeake in the same instant. Less experienced men might have panicked, but Schmidt's body reacted purely on instinct. He threw the engine into neutral, then reversed the gears.

For a few sickening moments, it looked as if Schmidt still hadn't reacted in time. The massive engine gave no sign of stopping, but slid relentlessly toward the rear cars of the Chesapeake, like a sledgehammer bearing down on a spike. Greer held his breath. The Rebels had thrown some ties across the rails and he was sure the Lord Baltimore would scatter the piled ties like so many matchsticks and ram the boxcar.

The driving wheels spun wildly, fighting the weight and inertia of the speeding train. Then the engine began to slow amid the scream of iron on iron. A great geyser of steam shot up. As the wheels gained traction, the locomotive slowed and crept to a halt with its huge "cow catcher" just short of the hastily erected barricade.

Greer let his breath out.

Then the shooting began.

"Let them have it, boys!" Percy shouted as he pulled the trigger and the Colt jumped in his hand.

He could see that the tender was swarming with blue-coated soldiers. The engine's cab was also packed with men. There were just too many soldiers. Percy wanted to keep them pinned down. If the Yankees rushed the train, Percy knew his handful of raiders would be overwhelmed.

The first shots from Percy's men struck two soldiers, who fell into the brown grass beside the tracks and sprawled there, unmoving. The rest took shelter inside the iron-sided tender and started to shoot back.

The raiders were outnumbered, but their revolvers enabled them to fire nearly forty shots within the space of a minute. The Yankees, armed with muzzle-loading Springfield rifles, returned fire at a much slower rate.

Nothing made Percy's skin crawl so much as the weird buzz of a mini bullet zipping past his ear. He suddenly heard several. Splinters flew from the piles of ties behind which his men were sheltering. They couldn't hold the Yankees for long.

After getting off that first shot, Percy held his own fire until his men emptied their guns. Then he fired as his men reloaded. He picked his targets carefully, forcing the Yankees to keep their heads down.

He looked back at the Chesapeake, where he could see the train crew working. Hurry, damn you, hurry. He shouted to be heard over the gunfire: "Two minutes, Wilson! Then get her rolling!"

The engineer acknowledged him with a wave and Percy turned back to the work at hand. Some of his men had reloaded and were shooting back. Still, one good rush from the Yankees and it would all be over.

A man jumped down from the engine's cab. Percy recognized him as the Chesapeake's conductor, still wearing his blue uniform with the double row of shiny brass buttons. Amazed, he realized this man had been pursuing them relentlessly since they had taken the train at Sykesville. How many miles was that? Seventy? Eighty? Percy felt a grudging sense of admiration for the conductor. Not just any man would chase a train that far. The colonel also felt a twinge of uneasiness. It was the stubborn Yankees who were the most dangerous.

As Percy watched, the conductor acted indifferently toward the hail of fire from the Confederates, not even bothering to hurry. As bullets flicked around him, he stopped to shout something at the captain cowering behind the engine. He then stomped angrily to one of the dead Yankees, snatched up the soldier's rifle, and aimed it deliberately at Percy.

Percy swung the revolver up and aimed hastily, but the hammer fell on an empty chamber. Damn. He ducked, and shards of wood exploded from near where his head had been a second ago.

The conductor turned and rallied the soldiers. Bayonets flashed in the late afternoon sun as they fixed them to their rifle muzzles. In a moment, the soldiers would charge and put an end to the raid. Percy's men were outnumbered two-to-one, and would be overwhelmed.

"Here they come, lads!" Flynn shouted in warning.

Beside Percy, the train lurched forward and began to move. Pettibone and Fletcher, positioned behind the wheels of the boxcar, had to roll out of the way to keep from being run over. Yankee rifles spit lead at them as soon as they were in the open.

"Get on the train!" Percy ordered. "Let's get out of here!"

The Yankees charged, shouting “Huzzah!”