Episode - 068 - Left to Die

Stop Making Yourself Miserable

In the last episode, Annie had returned to Captain Lee’s office in the War Department, expecting to pick up the furlough that would allow her to take her badly wounded brother, Daniel, back to Connecticut for home care. But when she went into Lee’s office, instead of giving her the furlough, he withheld it, attempting to get her to allow him to have his way with her.

It was a pure case of abuse of power, as he ransomed her brother’s life to extort her to submit to him. When she refused, he became infuriated and told her she would never be able to get the furlough unless, of course, she changed her mind. Again, she was a nineteen-year-old, inexperienced girl who had never been over thirty miles away from home before and was unexpectedly thrust into a truly desperate situation. Now, she had no idea what she was going to do.

And so, the next episode begins…

* * *

Annie had no choice but to start over. On top of what happened, Captain Lee had kept the letter from the army doctor and there was no way to get it back. She had to go back to the hospital, get a new letter from a doctor and try to find a better contact in the War Department. It seemed like a hopeless idea, but it was all she had left.

When she saw the Harrisons in the morning, rather than telling them what had happened, she just mentioned that a bureaucratic delay had come up and quickly headed back to the ferry to Alexandria.

Her mind churned out a whirlwind of scattered thoughts. She was hoping that Daniel might have improved. She was both sickened and seething from her unexpectedly horrible encounter with Lee. And she was starting to run out of money. She hadn’t planned on staying as long as she had, and the cost of all the transportation was high.

After the long ride, as her carriage climbed up the hill that overlooked the vast hospital grounds, she gathered her internal fortitude. But when she got to the top, the scene she saw hit her like a hard punch to the stomach and she gasped at the sight of it.

She had expected to see the several hundred white canvas tops that made up the hospital tent city. Instead, the place was basically deserted. What had been a sprawling medical encampment just two days earlier, was now just a gigantic grassland of deserted debris. The grounds were covered in garbage and medical waste was everywhere. There were just a few dozen tents left standing and it was a truly appalling sight.

A few Army men were packing up a wagon as she approached them.

“What happened?” she asked one of them.

“What do you mean?” he asked her back.

“What happened to the hospital?” she asked. “I was here the day before yesterday and it was -” she looked around. “It was -” She couldn’t continue and just shook her head.

“Oh, I see Miss,” the soldier said kindly. “Are you here to visit someone?”

“Yes,” Annie said. “I’m here for my brother.”

“Well,” he explained, “early yesterday morning, orders came in for us to break up the camp immediately. They set up a new tent hospital about ten miles from here. It’s bigger and much better equipped.

“The boys that were almost better just got sent back to their companies. The ones who were well enough to make the trip, got taken over to the new place. And the other ones will stay here. We’re going to finish gathering them up today.”

“Gathering them up? What are you going to do with them?” Annie questioned.

“Well, we’re going to take care of them here, Miss, in the big infirmary tent.”

In shock, Annie looked out at the sprawling desolate scene around her. “Sir, can you tell me how I might be able to find out if my brother’s still here?” she continued on.

“Well, the best place to start is to just go look in the big infirmary. Come with me and let’s see if he’s in there,” he said as he took her gently by the arm.

In a few minutes, Annie was standing inside the large tent, gazing over a sea of about 250 cots spread out before her. With the soldier next to her, she started walking up and down the aisles between the cots. Finally, she spotted Daniel. He was sound asleep.

“That’s him,” she said quietly to the soldier. She guided him a few steps away so that she could talk a little louder.

“Listen, sir, I need your help,” she continued. “I came here from Connecticut to get him a furlough and take him home so we can care for him. I need to get to a doctor who can write the recommendation letter and I need to do it right away. Can you stay with me and help me find a doctor? I don’t know if he can make it here much longer.”

It was mid-December and although there were some small fires burning, it was still quite cold in the tent. “Miss,” the soldier spoke slowly. “I’m afraid that can’t be done.”

“Please,” Annie begged. “I’ll do anything that’s necessary.” The words didn’t come out quite right and she was a little wary as she looked at him.

“I couldn’t help you if I wanted to,” he said immediately. “There are no doctors here anymore.”

“What?” Annie asked disbelievingly. “How can there be no doctors here?”

“They all left. They all got assigned to the bigger hospital,” the soldier explained.

“Well, what is going to happen to all these men?” she asked, looking at all the cots with the wounded.

“Like I said, we’re going to take care of them here. We were told to keep the boys as comfortable as possible,”

“How many soldiers are here with you? How many are here to help these men?” Annie asked.

“There were about 20 here yesterday. Today we’re down to about 12,” he said blankly.

“Twelve?” Annie asked, and the reality of the situation suddenly dawned on her. “They left them here to die, didn’t they?” she asked, dumbfounded. “They just left them here to die.”

“Miss,” the soldier tried to explain. “They didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t take everyone. There wasn’t enough transport, and the ones they left behind probably wouldn’t have survived the trip anyway. You understand? They had to do it like this. Nobody wanted this, but this is what we got.”

Annie’s mind spun in several different directions for a few moments. Then she reached a determination. “Alright,” she said firmly. “This is what we have to do. We have to get him out of here. I am going to take him home with me and I’m going to do it now. Will you help? Will you?”

“Now, look, you have to calm down, Miss,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re up against. You don’t just walk a man out of here. If a soldier goes leaves these grounds without a furlough, he immediately becomes a deserter. If he’s caught, they’ll hang him.”

“So what?” Annie retorted. “He’s going to die here anyway. He’ll die if I don’t get him out of here.”

“Yes, but if you take him off the grounds, you automatically become an accomplice. Make no mistake. This is the army, this is wartime and the laws are clear. Helping a deserter is treason. They’ll hang you too. Now don’t even think about it.” He paused for a moment and looked at her kindly, but resolutely. “And I’ll tell you what - if you try anything crazy like that, I promise you, I’ll stop you. And believe me, it will be for your own good.”

Annie didn’t know what to do. She needed some time to think, and she wanted to talk to Daniel and see how he was. From afar, he seemed like he had a little more color in his face. Hopefully, he was getting better.

“Alright sir,” she said, stalling for some time. “Alright, thank you. I appreciate it. I am going to speak with my brother for a while. Then I’ll try to figure something out. I know some people in Washington. Maybe I can do something there. They might be able to help,” she finished, having no idea what she was talking about.

She took a few steps back over to Daniel’s cot, put on the bravest face she could muster, and gently shook him awake. He opened his eyes, looked at her for a few seconds and then smiled.

“Hey, Sis,” he said quietly.

She immediately hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He shivered a little, but he definitely seemed a little better than he had been two days earlier. At least it didn’t seem like he was just about to die.

“Annie, we have to get away from here,” he said and coughed a little.

“I know, Daniel. I know. That’s what I came here for. I am going to take you home,” she said.

“Everything went okay at the War Department, didn’t it? You got the furlough, didn’t you?” he asked. Annie turned her face away to hide her tears and just stroked his hair.

“Look, the doctor will be here soon,” Daniel said confidently. “He told me yesterday that he would be coming around today. He said if we run into any problems at all, he would help out. He should be here soon.” They looked at each other for a moment and Daniel broke into a smile. “Don’t worry,” “he said calmly, but brightly. “I know everything is going to be fine.”

She couldn’t tell whether he was delusional or if someone had lied to him about being a doctor. It didn’t matter. She needed more time to think. She was scared to death, shaken to the core and didn’t want Daniel to see any of it. Even though his health seemed a little improved, but he was still very fragile. The last thing he needed now was a hard dose of reality. Annie closed her eyes for a second, then turned back to him smiling.

“It’s so good to see you, Danny. You look much better today,” she said and gently stroked his hair for a few minutes. He smiled at her. “Such a dear, dear soul,” she thought. “Probably the last person in the world who should be in combat.”

“Listen,” she said, “I am going outside to see if there is someone around that I can talk to, you know, to start to make the arrangements and things.” She patted him on the head. He nodded, closed his eyes and drifted away.

And that’s the end of this episode, with things having gone from bad to worse. As always, keep your eyes, mind and heart opened, and let’s get together in the next one.