A Yankee Girl at Antietam

by Alice Turner Curtis

“Of course you’ll do it right, Roxy-Doxy. All you have to do is just make believe that you have real animals, and that you really did capture the lions in Africa, and the elephants in India! Oh, Roxy! I really want to see it again myself,” and Polly’s gay little laugh made Roxy forget her fears and smile happily.

“I guess I can; I am going to fix the animals all up this afternoon so they will be ready,” she said, and Polly nodded approvingly, promising to be over in good season the next day, and “Brownie” trotted briskly off.

Roxy ran back to the house and brought the boxes of paper animals down to the sitting-room, and seated at her little table with her box of water-color paints she worked busily until dinnertime, and for the greater part of the afternoon.

Roxy’s thoughts travelled off to the scene of the recent battle, near which the Union Army was encamped, and she began to wonder if she would see any of the great generals of whom her father spoke: General McClellan who her father said had saved the Union Army; General Burnside, who had so bravely held the Antietam Bridge, over which at his command the 51st Pennsylvania regiment and the 51st New York had rushed at a double quick which the Confederates could not resist, and had planted the Stars and Stripes on the opposite bank amid cheers from every part of the battlefield from where they could be seen.

The little Yankee girl began to realize that it would be a wonderful thing if she could really do something to help the soldiers who had faced such peril to protect the Union; and when early that evening Grandma Miller and Jacob reached home Roxy was the first to welcome them, and instantly began to tell Mrs. Miller of Polly’s plan for Roxy to take her circus to the hospital tents along the Antietam.

“I declare! Polly is a jewel! It will do a world of good! I wish I had thought of it myself,” said Mrs. Miller. “Many of those soldiers must lay in tents or in the near-by houses and barns, for long days with nothing to cheer or amuse them. Roxy,” and Grandma Miller’s hand rested gently on the little girl’s shoulder as they walked toward the house, “it will be a beautiful thing if you can make these men smile and, for a time, forget the cruelty of war,” she said.

“Polly says that no one could help laughing because I look so funny in the coat and hat and whiskers,” Roxy replied; and Mrs. Miller smiled and owned that Polly was right.

Mrs. Miller had that day visited several of the hospital tents, and she was sure the officers in charge would welcome Roxy and her “circus,” and it was decided that on the following day Grandma Miller should go with Polly and Roxy to the Hagerstown road beyond Sharpsburg.

Polly arrived in good season the next morning driving “Brownie,” harnessed to the open wagon in which she had so often driven Roxy about the country roads. Roxy’s circus costume, high hat, long blue coat and “whiskers,” were in a box under the wagon seat, and Roxy brought out her boxes containing the paper animals, and Grandma Miller had baskets of fruit, freshly baked bread, and rolls of old cotton cloth, for hospital use, that were packed in the back of the wagon; then Mrs. Miller and Roxy seated themselves beside Polly and drove off.

As they rode along Grandma Miller suggested that Roxy should repeat what she meant to say to the soldiers as she pointed out the animals and told of their capture; and as Roxy began her story of facing raging lions, following camels across the desert, and taming elephants, both Mrs. Miller and Polly laughed in delight.