Chapter 12: 1865, She met him on his way home

Seaborn had sent word to Susan that the Yankees had released him from prison. “Can you make arrangements to meet me in Georgia?” he’d asked. They would rendezvous in Carroll County at the home of her brother.

2 Seaborn had been sick for weeks. The tightness in his chest was getting worse and being out in the weather didn’t make it any better. He trudged on through the rain and kept plodding southward. Nothing was going to keep him away from his wife and babies.

3 At about the same time, Susan had set out in a covered wagon from Randolph County, Alabama to meet her husband. She took their still small daughter, Leah, with her, while the child’s namesake (Seaborn’s mother) watched their three boys for her. The roads were unpaved and narrow at times, but she had helped to steer her father’s wagon to Alabama from Georgia many years before. She could do it.

4 Seaborn, however, was beginning to have his doubts. He was running a fever, and his chest was tight and burning now. Nevertheless, he pushed on. If he got to Anderson’s place ahead of her, he might have a few days to rest and recuperate before she had a chance to get there.

5 The dirt roads stretched on and on before him. He had lost track of all the hills that he had climbed, and the valleys he had crossed. Both of his shoes had holes in them now, and his clothes were ripped and torn from the briars and tree branches. But still he pressed on toward the meeting place. The place where Susan would be waiting for him.

6 And then one day, he was on Anderson’s front porch and knocking on the door. Sarah opened the front door, and barely had time to step aside as Seaborn fell into their cabin.

7 Her mother quickly stepped to the back door and hollered, “Anderson come quick!” Together, the three of them helped Seaborn into bed. He was burning up with fever.

8 Sarah immediately applied a cool, wet cloth to his forehead. “Thanks,” he finally managed. “I was beginnin to think I’d never git here,” he trailed off with a weak smile.

9 The following day, Susan and his daughter arrived. Sarah scooped the child up into her arms, and they quickly ushered her and her mother into the room where her husband was resting.

10 “Oh, my God!” Susan exclaimed when she saw him. She rushed over to the bedside knelt down and gently kissed his forehead. He opened his eyes and said, “You made it – I knew you would.”

11 “Yes, I made it; and look at our little girl!” she whispered with tears running down her cheeks as she motioned for Sarah to bring Leah closer to the bed. “She’s beautiful, just like you,” he said.

12 For the next three hours, Susan sat there by his bedside while he slept. She observed the rise and fall of his chest and listened to his ragged breathing. And then, suddenly and quietly, it was over. He was gone. He would not be coming home with her. Their children would never know their father.

13 “I wish I had brought the boys with me,” she sighed as she stared into his now still face. “You couldn’t have managed all of them youngins on your own,” Sarah comforted. She stroked Susan’s hair for a minute, and then walked to the back door and motioned for Anderson to come to the house.

14 “There’s a little cemetery about a mile from here, he said as he entered the house. “Of course,” Susan agreed. “That will be fine.”

15 She knew, however, that nothing would be fine. She knew that she would have to somehow raise four children on her own. She knew that the road ahead would be long and hard, but there was nothing to do except get up and tend to Leah.

16 “What a terrible price we’ve all paid for this war,” Sarah mused as she handed the child back to her mother. The thought of her own father’s death last year, and the loving sacrifice that he had made for her happiness was still fresh in her mind.

17 When the wagon at last returned to her mother-in-law’s house, Susan climbed down with Leah in her arms and ran inside to see her boys. She embraced them, crying and hugging them tight.

18 “Your daddy is dead,” was all she could choke out. Will and Levi started crying too. Leah sat down in the chair and held her stomach. It was then that Susan noticed her brother Will and his wife Mary standing there.

19 “He’s not ever coming home,” Susan said to everyone and no one. “I hate what this war has done to us!” she continued. “I know, sis,” William interjected. “I wish I could forget it all. I wish none of it had ever happened. And I don’t want to ever talk about it again,” he declared.