It is 1840 when a clever little boy named Claude Devereux announces that he wants to be a soldier. But his father will have none of it. It seems Claude is destined for a future not of his own wishes-that is, until destiny takes over. Many years later, Claude has worked his way up in the ranks to Brigadier General of the Union forces. But Claude is harboring a secret-he is a Confederate spy. With the code name Hannibal, he nurtures a long-standing reputation for being smart, but also a bit mad. After he becomes friends with Abraham Lincoln, he burrows his way into the heart of the Lincoln administration and slowly gains the president's confidence. Despite being pursued by counterintelligence agents and suspected of disloyalty, Hannibal manages to pass valuable information on to Richmond and the Confederacy. But everything is about to change when Hannibal realizes he has lost the trust of his comrades and that there is one man who will do anything to bring him down. In this third tale in the Strike the Tent series, Claude Devereux is forced to face the prospect of exposure. Now, only time will tell if he can and a way to escape his enemies before it is too late.

Down The Sky

Volume Three of the "Strike The Tent" TrilogyBy W. Patrick Lang

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 W. Patrick Lang
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-7179-3

Chapter One

— The Mission —

10 June, 1864

Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia was the "jewel in the crown" of the Confederate Army's medical department. In the summer of 1864, medical supplies were hard to obtain, but the staff was well trained. Virginia had a good medical school. Anesthesia and the relationship of infections to dirt were understood. The rate of infection was low, the lowest in North America. A wounded man had as good a chance of surviving in Chimborazo as he would anywhere in the world, but there were an awful lot of wounded that June and a man who had a private room was fortunate.

The ward buildings were white, wooden and one story. Captain William Fowle was happy to have a small room at the end of a ward. The favor of the War Department had made that possible. Outside, in the long, whitewashed room, men suffered communally, suffered without the dignity of privacy. Fowle's leg was ruined, smashed so badly that the surgeons had wanted to take it. They might yet if healing was not satisfactory.

His younger brother James sat by the window looking out in silences that were hard to avoid.

The early morning sunlight was cheery but the month of June in Richmond always meant that the day would be hot and the wounded man would lie on the bed sweating and itching under the cast covering his leg, unable to escape, unable to scratch the itch that accompanied dying skin.

Bill Fowle had commanded a company of the 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment for almost a year until he received this wound at Drewry's Bluff a month before. He had not seen his brother James for a long time. "I thought you were messing about with boats up on the Potomac," he said in trying to fill up the void of silence, "You know, carrying people across, back and forth, back and forth ..." He was having a hard time dealing with the other man's obvious good health. The well cut civilian suit irritated him.

"I did that for a few months," James replied, "but I got tired of it and came down to Richmond to ask for something else to do." James was an inch or so taller than Bill. This had always been a cause of uneasiness in their relationship.

The wounded officer shifted his weight in the bed so that he could look straight at his brother. "You could have come back to the regiment," he said with a smile. "We had a place for you in my company. Actually, we had a lot of empty places."

"No, no," his brother said. "I had enough of that. No more camping out for a living if I can avoid it."

"So, where have you been, Jimmy?" the crippled man asked. There was an edge in the voice. You could hear an infantry officer's instinctive scorn for shirking ...

"Come on, Willie," the brother replied. "Don't talk to me like that. I have been doing courier duty all over the North wherever we have friends, friends who need instructions, and money. I`ve been in the Middle West. I've been to Chicago a lot and up to New York City several times ... Several of the boys we know from home or Washington City are doing this work."

"They'll hang you if they catch you."

Jimmy waved a hand. "Surely, that makes it more interesting."

"And who did you persuade to transfer you from rowing boats for the Signal Corps to this kind of craziness?"

"Old Sam Cooper, you remember him."

"You mean General Samuel Cooper?"

"Yes, old Sam, from home in Alexandria. Father took me in to see him at the War Department. He moved me from one part of the secret service to another. It was easy as pie for him since they all work for him. He said I sounded close enough to a Yankee to pass for one. He should know. You remember. He was from New Jersey originally, like grandpa was from Boston."

"How did you learn that I was a guest of this lovely establishment?"

"Do you remember that fellow Jenkins?"

"Harry Jenkins?"

"That's him. He's a major in Sam Cooper's offices. He is in the secret part of the offices."

"I remember him from school, from the military institute"

"Ah, that was before you were sent home for `academic insufficiency'. Father is still upset with you for that." James appeared to relish the thought.

"No more than I am with myself. What about Jenkins?"

"He says that I am to be your assistant and courier in managing someone with the code name of `Hannibal,' but only if that is acceptable to you. Evidently you know of this man, `Hannibal' ..."

The older brother laughed and then smiled. "Ah, you are here to learn if that is so."

James nodded, and waited.

The wounded man sighed. "I see the logic of this. I will never be able to get around well enough to do this without help. I agree. Do you know who Hannibal is?"

"No. They wouldn't tell me until you agreed."

"Claude Devereux."

"Our Claude Devereux, from Alexandria? But, I heard that he had gone over to the other side and that he is a colonel in their army ..."

"No, not a colonel, they have promoted him. He is a brigadier general now, but he is really one of ours. He works in the office of their Secretary of War, in Stanton's offices and somehow he has become a friend of Lincoln."

James looked somber. "Claude was always a little mad," he said. You know that is true, smart, but a little mad. And, there was that business with his father. The old man couldn't stand the sight of him. I never understood why, and then he went off to Europe and abandoned his wife, that gorgeous creature.

"Charles is dead, you know."

"His father is dead?

"He died last month. A courier brought the news across the river."

"Where is he now, Claude, I mean?"

"He is exchanged. They thought we had captured him in the Wilderness. In fact he crossed the lines at night during the fighting to report and then was wounded at Spotsylvania. He's back in Washington."

"Jenkins is waiting outside to know if you want me to work with you ..."

"Bring him in."

* * *

The absent Claude Devereux once remarked that Major Harry Jenkins was a particularly homely man. Thin, freckled and red headed, he looked like an artist's cruel caricature. The grey uniform did not improve his looks. The big Adam's apple made him look even stranger.

"We have stopped Grant for the time being at Old Cold Harbor," Jenkins said to start the meeting. The bloodshed was terrible. Even if you hate the Yankees, it was terrible. We recovered some of their bodies," he said. "They had pinned little bits of paper to their backs with their names on them."

After a moment, Bill Fowle said. "Cold Harbor, that is close. We heard the artillery from here."

"About fifteen miles," Jenkins responded, "Grant has sent a lot of his cavalry off to the west along the line of the Virginia Central. We don't have any idea where they are going. There are some big supply depots over around Trevilian. Perhaps they are going there. Lee sent Hampton in pursuit. With Stuart dead, Hampton commands Lee's cavalry division, but, there is even more bad news. General David Hunter took over command in the Shenandoah Valley after Sigel was defeated at New Market last month. Hunter is now moving south along the Valley Pike. He was in Staunton last week. We do not know where he is going but we suspect that he will come over the Blue Ridge to Charlottesville or Lynchburg. Perhaps the idea is for him to unite with all that cavalry that is now headed west. If that happens, we are finished. Much of our supplies come over the Virginia Central and we could not survive that loss of food and fodder."

"It appears that Grant is smarter than we thought?" Jimmy's question hung in the air as a reproach.

"And the `tycoon' is going to do what?" his brother Bill asked using the army's nickname for Robert E. Lee. "I can feel in my broken bones that he will act to stop this combination."

Jenkins smiled. "Your bones are prescient. Jubal Early now commands Second Corps. Ewell was too sick to continue. Uncle Robert is detaching that corps and a few other odds and ends to go and deal with Hunter, and the cavalry."

"I sense that this is of immediate personal importance to us," James said from his chair by the window. He had been watching a brown feathered, orange beaked Cardinal in the tree by the window, but she flew away.

"Yes. We have decided that brother `Hannibal' needs closer supervision. His natural ... spontaneity and his recent promotion, you see ..."

James grunted in agreement.

"A Major Isaac Smoot is in hospital at Lynchburg. He is the second in command of Lieutenant Colonel John Balthazar's independent battalion of infantry."

"Devereux's French cousin," Bill said. "I have heard of this. He and Smoot raised the battalion last fall. I hear they are a fine body of men."

"Jean-Marie Balthazar d'Orgueil" to give him his proper name," Jenkins said. "Yes, they are fine men, somehow ... Balthazar was here as a kind of observer for the French, but Early asked him to take charge of a lot of misfits and Yankee deserters and to make a force of them. They have fought very well for Early. He swears by them."

"And?" James whispered by the window. He had a pocket handkerchief in his hand and was rubbing spots off one of the window panes. "And?"

"You remind me of Smoot," Jenkins replied. This was clearly not a compliment. "Smoot lost a hand at Spotsylvania a month ago. He seems to be recovering. He was Devereux's `helper' in Alexandria before he became involved with Balthazar. He is very skilled in our kind of work. He was with Mosby for a long time. That is where we found him when we sent him to Alexandria to help our friend Devereux."

"This Balthazar married Pat Devereux's widow," Bill said to no one in particular. He was silent for a moment. "Victoria. That's her name."

"Yes. That is her name. She is in Alexandria with the Devereux clan."

"I suppose you know her," Bill Fowle said. "You and Pat were classmates at VMI."

Jenkins nodded.

"Let me guess," James mused even while appearing to be absorbed in the cleanliness of the window glass. "I am to go with Early's column, perhaps with this Frenchman's battalion. In Lynchburg I am to collect a man with a month old amputation and carry him to Alexandria where he and I will watch our man `Hannibal' for signs of ... what exactly?"

"We are not sure. That is why you will watch him, and help him of course."

"Do we have to join the Yankee army?"

"Not funny. Be serious."

"Major, you are plenty serious enough for all of us ..."

Jenkins would have liked to reprimand James Fowle for this insolence, but people like Fowle did not accept reprimands easily and just now his willing cooperation was needed. The Fowle family of Alexandria was among the richest merchants in the commonwealth. That had to be remembered as well. "You are not going alone," Jenkins said after a moment of inner effort. "We have arranged for Bill White, the lead teamster of the 17th Virginia Regiment to be detached to join your party. I presume that you know him. He worked with `Hannibal' and Smoot in Alexandria. He will help you with the wounded man."

Bill Fowle looked at him with a strange doubt showing in his face. "Of course we know White," he exclaimed. "We grew up with him and all the Devereuxs. Bill White is a good man. You know, of course that he is Claude Devereux's cousin, the product of old Richard Devereux's long `union' with a colored family servant that he brought from Maryland? You know that, don't you?"

"Yes. I know that. Bill's father, George White, was Richard's son. He is the majordomo and butler of the Devereux household. He's the uncle of the Devereux boys. Another of his sons, Joseph, is Balthazar's valet ..."

"Body servant," James said.

Jenkins turned to look at him. He did not like the term.

"Come on, major!" James laughed. "Joe and I have been fishing and making mischief together since we were little children. He doesn't care what I say. Why should you? And, yes, his other brother, George, Junior, is in the Yankee army somewhere. I wonder where ..."

"Everyone who is a real Alexandrian knows all about this," Bill said to Jenkins, "but they also know that the Devereuxs don't want it talked about. You should be careful. I don't imagine that Claude likes you much anyway."

The Fowles smiled at that.

"He killed a man who insisted on talking about it in public," James muttered. "How are we supposed to get to Washington from Lynchburg?" he asked in a louder voice. "Back across the river somewhere?" He looked doubtful at that thought.

"No," Jenkins replied, "That's too dangerous. Grant's cavalry is all over central Virginia. We can't take the chance that you would be caught. Early's orders take him over the Blue Ridge and into the Shenandoah Valley near Lexington. We have people there who will take you across the Alleghenies and down the Kanawha Valley to the Ohio River. You will be in funds from us and can arrange railroad transportation from there. Once you get Smoot to Alexandria, there will be abundant medical and nursing help for him, not least from the ladies of the Devereux household."

"Identification documents?" James asked.

"They are being prepared now. They will seek to establish an image of you all as business and trades people from Ohio ... You can pass for that. Smoot is from Loudoun County and will sound nearly right for someone from rural southern Ohio."

"You have it all worked out," James said with reluctant approbation. "When you say `we,' who is that?"

"You needn't know." There was a certain satisfaction in denying James the information.

In fact, the younger Fowle had not expected an answer.

"For now, until Captain Fowle can take his post in Secretary of State Benjamin's offices, it is agreed that I will `conduct' this business from Richmond. So far as you are concerned, I am `we.' I am concerned that so many people in our army already know that Claude Devereux served with your regiment before we sent him to Washington as Hannibal last spring. Captain Fowle, at your convenience I would like you to make me a list of our people who know of this. Include anyone with too much knowledge; perhaps there is some enemy soldier or civilian ..."

"Ah," Bill said. "There is someone who worries me, someone too intelligent to be easily fooled for long."

"Who is that?"

"Two days before I was shot we fought Kautz's cavalry over a pair of bridges on the rail line southwest of here. General Kautz was raiding out of the pocket in Bermuda Hundred where they are bottled up. We took a lot of prisoners. One of them was a very astute, very professional, Italian major. He was from Rome, a foreign volunteer, something like Balthazar is on our side." He smiled at the comparison. "This man kept asking a lot of questions about the people in our company, who they were, how they knew each other. He was curious. Claude Devereux served in that company before he started working for you all. Hell, he was the company commander before me ... I don't know that any one said anything, but ..."

"What happened to the major?" Jenkins asked.

"We moved by rail to our rendezvous with Corse's Brigade. The prisoners were divided up among the boxcars. I didn't like his air of superiority, so I put him in a boxcar with men from our company. Bill White and Jake Devereux, Claude's brother, were in that car. I have no idea what was said during the trip. The fight at Drewry's Bluff was the next day. I remember that we unloaded the prisoners and wounded at a siding south of James River before the battle. A party from the regiment was given the task of marching them to a prisoner collection station run by the provost marshal."

"His name?"

"It's in my journal over there on the chest of drawers. Jimmy, please get it."

"Here it is," he said after a moment of inspection of the little cloth bound book. "Marco Aurelio Farinelli, I wrote it down because he invited me to dinner in Rome. I fed him in our company mess," he added by way of explanation.

"But you did not like him?"

"No. I did not. It was a matter of courtesy to a captured officer."

"Presumably we still have him," Jenkins said, "probably here in Libby Prison. It is full of recently captured officers. I will find him." He gathered up his things. "I almost forgot" he said when halfway to the door. "Lieutenant Joachim Murat Devereux is promoted to captain and transferred to Balthazar's battalion. Balthazar lost a company commander in the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania and asked Early for his cousin "Jake." "We" arranged it.

Jim Fowle whistled tunelessly. "Well, the more the merrier" he finally said.

"There is something else," Jenkins said in a low voice as though he feared that the patients and nurses in the ward would hear. "We are come to a very bad state of affairs," Jenkins continued. "The Dahlgren papers have changed thinking in the government concerning the limits of action ... against Lincoln and his cabinet."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Down The Skyby W. Patrick Lang Copyright © 2012 by W. Patrick Lang. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.