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“Union soldiers.” Pierre said it in a low voice to Jacques Benoit, whose neck was craning out the boarding house window next to Pierre’s. Both their nightshirts billowed in the early May breeze. They stayed in place at their windows, stretching their necks around the sweet olive trees just outside, and above a low house across the street. Both young men focused their eyes in the dim moonlight toward the oblique view of their street’s intersection with Main Street a block away. Yes, those were indeed blue uniforms, and then they heard marching orders shouted out in unfamiliar accents. The two of them hesitated only a minute before withdrawing into their separate rooms. Each could hear the other close his window, each knowing those closed windows would not keep away what they had seen. Pierre, Jacques, and several other residents of the boarding house had awakened to unfamiliar noise and had gone to their individual north-facing windows when the sounds began. Feet tramping in unison about a block away, in the direction of Main Street. Wagons, too. “It’s just after two in the morning!” one of them had relayed down the line. The whole place stirred until the landlady served an early breakfast. At the long table, Pierre absorbed details from other men’s comments. “About 75 men, the blacksmith said…” “Confederate blockade runner…” “Little Caillou…” “No, Bayou Grand Caillou…” Pierre heard more as bakery customers filled in a few details throughout the day. The troops were on their way to capture that blockade runner Fox the townspeople knew had entered the mouth of Bayou Grand Caillou a few days before. All right, then. They’ll capture it,ormiss it,and then they’ll go away. But that night, just as he had finally settled in, someone stage whispered, “Pierre! Pierre!” He opened his door to Jacques and Etienne in the middle of the night. “Men from town killed some Union soldiers this evening. Ambushed them and shot them dead. Got prisoners, too. Mr. Tanner…you know, Room 7…he was out late, and saw them come back into town.” Pierre sat back down on the bed. “You know what this means. They’ll come for revenge.” “But it won’t affect us,” Etienne said without conviction. “We’re CHAPTER 11 Early May, 1862: Witness to War 111 Chapter 11 Moonlight and Magnolias by Mort Künstler representation of 1862, copyright 1997 Mort Künstler, Inc. Flags (from left) are the Louisiana flag of 1861, the First National Flag of the Confederacy, and the Pelican Flag of Louisiana before secession. Reflecting the non-standardization of Confederate uniforms at the start of the war are men wearing uniforms of (extreme left) a first lieutenant in the Louisiana Zouaves; (right of flower pedestal) a former U.S. Naval Commander in full dress uniform; (center) a first lieutenant of the Confederate States Marines; (with children) a sergeant of Washington Artillery from New Orleans. never going to be soldiers, we decided two years ago. We haven’t done anything. It’s not our war, remember?” Jacques and Pierre gave each other knowing glances. “Yes, the regiments did not call us up. And we speak bad English,” Pierre answered. “But Etienne, you were far away from the wars back home, weren’t you? They have a way of catching up with you, whether you’re for one side or the other.” “Then, do we head out of town? Or do we stay? Where would we go?” Jacques’ usual calm was shaken. The three looked at each other, and Pierre said what they all knew. “We have no place to go. No families, no friends out in the country yet….Not much we can do, except just try not to be noticed.” What could not go unnoticed were the events of the next day. Both mesmerized and repulsed, the three young men stood at the back of the crowd near the courthouse when the townspeople’s ambush party brutalized two Union soldiers’ bodies, then forced blacks to bury them in the square a few feet from the market house. No coffins. Just a blanket to cover them and dirt heaped in a mound to remind passersby what had happened to the Yankees. That afternoon and into the night, they watched families closing up houses and heading out of town on whatever conveyances they had, some even on foot. The men had worried faces, the children looked excited, and some of the women...

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