The Sentence

Lou seeped a cold sweat from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. There were droplets rolling down her face. She felt cold in the August heat. General Joseph Wheeler was sure that there were tears mixed with the perspiration. Over the year that Lou had been with the cavalry, the general had taken to him - her. The doctoring Lou provided at Spring Place might have saved his foot if not his life. The general was truly confused, sad and a bit humored by the situation. A strappling teenage girl had fooled a whole cavalry of unruly, ruthless, restless horse soldiers. Fooled them and Sergeant Maddox, Major Stevenson and him. What a hoot! He was astonished, amazed but knew what had to be done.

Farrier First Sergeant George Maddox and Major Amos Solon Stevenson stood on each side of Private Mary Louise "Lou" Fields, farrier, Cavalry of the Army of Tennessee. General Joseph Wheeler, chief of Cavalry, sat before a makeshift desk in the musty hall of a big old poplar logged barn near Lovejoy, Georgia on the hot, humid, steamy morning of August 6, 1864. General Wheeler sat on a rickety porch chair, his elbows on the table, his ungloved hands crossed before him on the empty table.

To the general's right in a kitchen chair, leaning on its' back legs against the log hall wall sat Brother Paul Israel Robertson, volunteer Baptist chaplain with the Army of Tennessee. He happened just that day to be on only his second visit to Wheeler's cavalry in eight months. Brother Robertson was not much older than the general, maybe thirty, clean- with a head fringed with stringy, greasy hair that hung down to his shoulders. As with Shakespeare's Cassius, he had a hard, lean and hungry look. Slight of build, 5' 8", 130 pounds, he rested his head on his narrow chest, his thin long arms wrapped his dirty tattered black frock coat. A tarnished Maltese cross insignia was present on his coat lapel. He was without caveat and wore a faded butternut homespun shirt buttoned at his throat. He was listening intently, his eyes closed, his breathing expressive. None of the four others in the hall were unaware of his presence.