A Yankee Girl at Antietam

by Alice Turner Curtis

It was now late in the afternoon, but no anxiety had been felt over Roxy’s absence. Believing her to be with Polly Lawrence, Mrs. Delfield had not been troubled, and when she saw Roxy coming slowly up the slope came to the door to welcome her; but before Roxy had reached the house one of the negro field-hands was seen running across the yard and Roxy heard him call out:

“Sojers! Sojers! A’ army. Missus! Marchin’ down de road!” and the little girl turned and looked eagerly toward the highway and saw a group of mounted soldiers, in blue uniforms, as they rode swiftly down the road that led toward Harper’s Ferry.

It was the 27th of June, 1862, and on that very day General Lee had driven the Union forces under General Porter across the Chickahominy, putting General McClellan on the defensive, and creating alarm as to the security of Washington; and the little group of Union soldiers that Roxy now watched so eagerly were riding to join McClellan’s forces that were so soon to prove their unfaltering courage on the field of battle.

“My lan’! Ain’ we be’n seein’ sojers all de spring!” declared Dulcie. “’Tain’ no great sight on dese roads; an’ so long as de blue coats don’ run ’cross de gray coats I guess ’tain’ much ’count! But jes’ s’pose dey happens to meet up wid one ’nudder some day long de Anti-eatem!” and Dulcie shook her head solemnly, as Roxy stood on the porch looking after the soldiers.

But the passing of the “blue coats” had reminded Mrs. Delfield and her mother of how near they were to the scenes of the great conflict, and their faces grew sad as they spoke of the threatening advance of Jackson’s Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley, of the recent battle at Fair Oaks, and of the new Commander-in-Chief of the Southern forces, General Robert E. Lee, an officer honored by every American, and fitted for the greatest command.

Talking of these things they paid but little attention to Roxy, who went slowly up to her chamber and kneeling down on the window-seat looked off wistfully toward the Lawrence farm, and began to wish that she was on the old friendly terms with Polly Lawrence.

“Perhaps Polly is looking over this way now. I wish we had thought of a signal that meant ‘I’m sorry,’” and Roxy sighed deeply. Then she sprang up and ran to the corner of the room, seized a towel and hurried back to the window. She leaned out and waved it, and then fastened it to the green wooden shutter.

“That means ‘Come over the minute you see this,’ and Polly will come. I’m sure she will. Polly never stays angry,” thought Roxy, and when her mother called her to supper she ran down sure that her quarrel with Polly was over.

But it was hard for Roxy not to speak of all that had happened, and she was so quiet at supper, so ready to go to bed at an early hour that her mother thought she must be tired out by the long day wandering about with Polly.

The next morning Roxy was awake at an early hour. She could hear the sleepy notes of nesting birds in the trees near the house, and the voices of the negro farm-hands as they started off to the fields. Her first waking thought was the “signal,” and in a moment she was out of bed running to the open window.