The picture blurred, replaced by an unfamiliar plantation where dreamy black figures bucked up and down, impregnating moaning colored girls to beget more human chattels.
Then, a long row of men in gray; she watched each being shot, shot again, shot a third and fourth time, blood spatters multiplying on the breasts of their tunics while one man in Union blue fired endlessly. She knew the slayer. She had nursed him in a field hospital till he was once more fit for duty.
She awoke sweating and excited.
In the note included with his letter of introduction, Dr. Howe offered two pieces of advice: Virgilia should not dress too elaborately for her interview with Miss Dix, and although the superintendent of nurses would be quick to detect raw flattery, a discreet bit of praise for
Virgilia reached Washington during an early December warm spell. When she stepped down to the sunlit train platform, she wrinkled her nose at the odor arising from eight pine crates on a baggage wagon. Water stained the wood, seeped from the joints, and splashed on the platform. She asked a baggage man what the boxes contained.
'Soldiers. Weather like this, the ice don't hold.'
'Has there been a battle?'
'Not any big ones that I know about. These boys likely died of the flux or something similar. You hang around a while, you'll see hundreds of them boxes.'
Swallowing back something in her throat, Virgilia moved away, carrying her own portmanteau. No wonder the commission considered its work so necessary.
At ten the next morning, she entered the office of Dorothea Dix. Miss Dix, a spinster of sixty, was neat and orderly in her dress, her gestures, and her speech. 'It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Hazard. You have a brother in Secretary Cameron's department, do you not?'
'Two of them, actually. The second is a commissioned officer working for General Ripley. And my youngest brother is with the engineers in Virginia. It was his wife who recommended your book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.' She prayed Miss Dix wouldn't ask a question about the contents, since she hadn't bothered to buy or borrow a copy.
'I am happy to hear it. Will you see your brothers during your stay in the city?'
'Oh, naturally. We're very close.' Did it sound too exaggerated, making the lie apparent? 'It's my hope that my stay will be permanent. I would like to be a nurse, though I'm afraid I have no formal training.'
'Any intelligent female can quickly learn the technical aspects. What she cannot acquire, if she does not already possess it, is the one trait I consider indispensable.'
Miss Dix folded her hands and regarded Virgilia with gray-blue eyes whose sternness seemed at odds with the femininity of her long neck and her soft voice.
'Yes?' Virgilia prompted.
'Fortitude. The women in my nurse corps confront filth, gore, depravity, and crudity that good breeding forbids me to describe. My nurses are subjected to hostility from patients and also from the doctors, who are, in theory, our allies. I have definite ideas about the work we do and how it must be done. I tolerate no disagreement — a characteristic that further alienates certain politicians and surgeons. Those are challenges we face. Yet the greatest one remains the challenge to human courage. What you will do if you join us, Miss Hazard, is what I have done for many years, because someone must. You will not merely look into hell; you will walk there.'
Virgilia breathed with soft sibilance, trying to conceal the sensual excitement seizing her again. In blinding visions that hid Miss Dix, windrows of young men in cadet gray fell bleeding and screaming. Grady grinned at the spectacle, showing the fine artificial teeth she had bought to replace the ones pulled out to mark him as a slave —
'Miss Hazard?'
'I'm sorry. Please forgive me. A momentary dizziness.'
A frown. 'Do you have such spells frequently?'
'Oh, no — no! It's the heat.'
'Yes, it is excessive for December. How do you respond to what I told you?'
Virgilia dabbed her upper lip with her handkerchief. The bright light through the windows showed the scars on her cheeks; she had worn no powder. 'I was active in abolitionist work, Miss Dix. As a consequence, I often saw —' she forced more strength into her voice — 'the ravaged bodies of escaped slaves who had been whipped or burned by their masters. I saw scars, hideous disfigurement. I bore it. I can bear the rigors of nursing.'
At long last the woman from Boston smiled at the visitor. 'I admire your certainty. It is a good sign. Your appearance is suitable and Dr. Howe's recommendation enthusiastic. Shall we turn to particulars of your compensation and living arrangements?'
42
Lieutenant Colonel Orry Main's first forty-eight hours in Richmond were frantic. He found temporary quarters in a boarding-house, signed papers, took the oath, bought his uniforms, and presented himself to Colonel Bledsoe, in charge of operations at the War Department offices, on the Ninth Street side of Capitol Square.
A clerk named Jones, a Marylander with a sour, secretive air, showed Orry his desk behind one of the flimsy partitions that divided the office. Next day Secretary Benjamin received him. The plump little man had replaced Walker, the blunt-spoken Alabama lawyer blamed for the failure to capitalize on the Manassas victory, as well as for recent military inaction.
'Delighted you're with us at last, Colonel Main.' The secretary exuded camaraderie, except in his unreadable eyes. 'I understand we're dining together Saturday night.'
Orry expressed surprise. Benjamin said, 'The invitation is probably at your lodgings now. Angela Mallory sets a superb table, and the secretary's juleps are renowned. Mr. Mallory is full of praise for the work your brother and Bulloch are doing in Liverpool — ah, but I imagine you are more interested in hearing about your own duties.'
'Yes, sir.'
'The spot you're to fill has been empty too long. It is a job both necessary and, I regret to say, difficult, because it requires contact with a person of odious disposition. Does the name Winder mean anything?'
Orry thought a bit. 'At West Point, they used to talk about General William Winder. He lost the battle of Bladensburg in — 1814, was it?' Benjamin nodded. 'Now it's coming back. Winder fought from a superior position with superior forces, but the British whipped him anyway, then marched unopposed to Washington and burned it. Later, I understand, they named a building after him when they rebuilt the town, but professionals always cite him as one of the bunglers who prompted reform in the army by means of reform at West Point. I suppose you could say Sylvanus Thayer was appointed because of him.'
'It is Winder's son to whom I refer. He was a tactical officer at West Point for a period.'
'That I didn't know.'
With noticeable care in selection of his words, Benjamin continued, 'He was, in fact, an instructor when President Davis attended the institution. Thus, when Major Winder came here from Maryland earlier this year, the President had good memories of him. Winder was appointed brigadier general and provost marshal. His offices are close by. I will try to prepare you by explaining that Winder is nominally charged with apprehending military criminals and aliens. In other words, he's a glorified policeman — which in itself would not be a problem were he not also one of those persons in whom advancing age induces inflexibility. Finally, and regrettably, he is a martinet. Yet, in spite of it all, he enjoys the President's favor.' Benjamin gave him a level look. 'For the time being.'
Orry nodded to signify understanding. He now had a clue as to why the word difficult had been used to describe his new duties.
Benjamin told him that the provost marshal had recruited a number of men listed on his personnel roster as professional detectives. 'I characterize them as plug-uglies. Imported ones at that. Yankee scum who neither
