Robert Toombs Part 16

Mattox. It was well he did. That night a party of thirty soldiers raided the Martin plantation on a hot trail, and searched thoroughly for Toombs.

During his travels General Toombs did not wear a disguise of any sort.

Dressed in a checked suit, and riding his gray mare, he was a prominent object, and to most of the people was well known. One day he wore green goggles, but soon threw them away in disgust. The nearness of troops forced General Toombs to abandon his plan of going home for his family before leaving the country. He dispatched Lieutenant Irvin to Was.h.i.+ngton with letters to his wife, telling her that he would not see her again until he had gone abroad, when he would send for her to join him. He himself pa.s.sed through Centreville, twelve miles from his home, and directed his young guide where to meet him in middle Georgia. This Lieutenant Irvin found it very hard to do. General Toombs was very discreet as to whom he took into his confidence. Once or twice he cautioned his companion against certain parties, to the surprise of the young man. Toombs, however, read human nature pretty well, and, later, when the real character of these persons developed, Irvin understood the counsels of his older friend. So carefully did General Toombs cover his tracks that Lieutenant Irvin, after his detour to Was.h.i.+ngton, was a long time in overtaking him. Traveling straight to Sparta, Lieutenant Irvin called on Judge Linton Stephens and asked about the general. This shrewd Georgian came to the door and flatly denied knowing anything about Toombs.

"He questioned me closely," said Lieutenant Irvin, "and finding that I was really who I pretended to be, finally agreed to take me to Toombs.

Riding down to Old-Town, in Jefferson County, we failed to find Toombs, but receiving a clew that he had pa.s.sed through the David d.i.c.kson plantation in Hanc.o.c.k County, I accosted Mr. Worthen, the manager. 'Has an old man riding a gray horse pa.s.sed this way,' Worthen was asked. He promptly answered, 'No.' Believing that he was deceiving me, I questioned him more closely."

Worthen tried to persuade the young man to get down and take some plums.

He was evidently anxious to detain him. Finally he eyed the stranger more closely, and, convinced that he was the companion whom Toombs expected, he confessed that General Toombs had been at his place and was then at the home of Major Gonder in Was.h.i.+ngton County.

Lieutenant Irvin had ridden over two hundred miles in this search and lost two or three days out of his way. Toombs covered his trail so carefully that it was difficult even for his friends to find him. Small wonder that he was not captured by the enemy.

Lieutenant Irvin was not yet "out of the woods." Reaching the home of Major Gonder late in the evening, he rode up to the front fence, fifty yards from the dwelling. Mrs. Gonder and her daughter were sitting on the piazza. Lieutenant Irvin asked the usual question about the old man and the gray horse. The lady replied that she knew nothing about them.

Lieutenant Irvin said: "But I was directed to this place."

Mrs. Gonder: "I should like to know who sent you."

Lieutenant Irvin: "But has no one pa.s.sed or stopped here, answering my description?"

Both ladies were now considerably worked up; the younger scarcely suppressed her amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Come, ladies," said Lieutenant Irvin, "I see you both know more than you will confess."

"If I do, I will die before I tell it," navely replied the elder.

"Now I know you know where General Toombs is."

"Then get it out of me if you can."

Finally the young man persuaded her that he was the friend of Toombs, and Mrs. Gonder reluctantly directed him to Colonel Jack Smith's over on the Oconee River.

Riding up to Colonel Smith's, his valiant pursuer spied General Toombs through the window. The head of the house, however, denied that Toombs was there at all.

"But that looks very much like him through the window," said Lieutenant Irvin.

"Young man," retorted Colonel Smith, "what is your name?"

Of course this disclosure led to the reunion of the fugitive and his friend.

Toombs realized that he was in almost as much danger from his own friends as from the enemy. He was careful to whom he disclosed his ident.i.ty or his plans, for fear that they might indiscreetly comment on his presence or embarra.s.s him even by their willingness to befriend him.

So it was that he proceeded secretly, picking his way by stealth, and actually doing much of his travel by night.

At the home of Colonel Jack Smith, the two men remained a week to rest their horses and take their bearings. General Toombs spent much time on the Oconee trolling for trout, while bodies of Union cavalry were watching the ferries and guarding the fords, seining for bigger fish.

Pa.s.sing into Wilkinson County, General Toombs stopped at the home of Mr.

Joseph Deas. When Lieutenant Irvin asked if the pair could come in, Deas replied, "Yes, if you can put up with the fare of a man who subsists in Sherman's track."

A maiden sister of Deas lived in the house. With a woman's sensitive ear, she recognized General Toombs' voice, having heard him speak at Toombsboro seventeen years before. This discovery, she did not communicate to her brother until after the guests had retired. Deas had been discussing politics with Toombs, and his sister asked him if he knew to whom he had been talking all night? Deas said he did not.

"Joe Deas," she said, "are you a fool? Don't you know that is General Toombs?"

Strange to say, a negro on the place, just as they were leaving, cried out "Good-by, Ma.r.s.e Bob." He had driven the family to the speaking seventeen years before, and had not forgotten the man who defended slavery on that day.

"Good Lord!" said Toombs, "go give that negro some money."

This same negro had been strung up by the thumbs by Sherman's troops a few months before because he would not tell where his master's mules were hidden. He piloted General Toombs through the woods to the home of Colonel David Hughes, a prominent and wealthy farmer of Twiggs County.

Colonel Hughes had been in Toombs' brigade, and the general remained with him a week.

General Toombs was sitting on the piazza of Colonel Hughes's house one afternoon when an old soldier asked permission to come in. He still wore the gray, and was scarred and begrimed. He eyed General Toombs very closely, and seemed to hang upon his words. He heard him addressed as Major Martin, and finally, when he arose to leave, wrung the general's hand.

"Major Martin," he said, brus.h.i.+ng the tears from his eyes, "I'm mighty glad to see you. I wish to G.o.d I could do something for you."

At the gate he turned to Colonel Hughes and said: "I know who that is.

It is General Toombs. You can't fool me."

"Why do you think so?" Colonel Hughes asked.

"Oh, I remember Gray Alice jumping the stone walls at Sharpsburg too well to forget the rider now."

"Colonel," he continued, "this morning a man near here, who is a Republican and an enemy of General Toombs, thought he recognized him near your house. He saw him two hundred yards away. I heard him say he believed it was Toombs and he wished he had his head shot off. I came here to-night to see for myself. You tell General Toombs that if he says the word, I will kill that scoundrel as sure as guns."

The veteran was persuaded, however, to keep quiet and do nothing of the sort.

It was at this time that Lieutenant Irvin found that the ferries of the Ocmulgee River were guarded from one end to the other. Near this place Davis had been captured and the Union troops were on a sharp lookout for Toombs. Convinced that further travel might be hazardous, General Toombs and his friend rode back to the mountains of North Georgia, and there remained until the early fall. It was in the month of October that the fugitives again started on their checkered flight. The May days had melted into summer, and summer had been succeeded by early autumn. The crops, planted when he started from home that spring day, were now ripening in the fields, and Northern statesmen were still declaring that Toombs was the arch-traitor, and must be apprehended. Davis was in irons, and Stephens languished in a dungeon at Fortress Monroe.

Pa.s.sing once more near Sparta, Ga., Toombs met, by appointment, his friends, Linton Stephens, R. M. Johnson, W. W. Simpson, Jack Lane, Edge Bird, and other kindred spirits. It was a royal reunion, a sort of Lucretia Borgia feast for Toombs--"eat and drink to-day, for to-morrow we may die."

Traveling their old road through Was.h.i.+ngton County, they crossed the Ocmulgee, this time in safety, and pa.s.sed into Houston County. The Federals believed Toombs already abroad and had ceased to look for him in Georgia. After the pa.s.sage was made General Toombs said: "Charlie, that ferryman eyed me very closely. Go back and give him some money."

Lieutenant Irvin did return. The ferryman refused any gift. He said: "I did not want to take what you did give me." Irvin asked the reason. The ferryman said: "Tell General Toombs I wish to G.o.d I could do something for him."

General Toombs had a wide personal acquaintance in Georgia. He seldom stopped at a house whose inmates he did not know, and whose relatives and connections he could not trace for generations. Sometimes, when incognito, the two men were asked where General Toombs was. They answered, "Cuba."

At Oglethorpe, in Macon County, General Toombs rode right through a garrison of Federal soldiers. As one of his regiments came from this section, General Toombs was afraid that some of his old soldiers might recognize him on the road. A Federal officer advanced to the middle of the street and saluted the travelers. Their hearts bounded to their throats, and, instinctively, two hands stole to their revolvers. Pistols and spurs were the only resources. Chances were desperate, but they were resolved to take them. The officer watched them intently as they rode leisurely through the town, but he was really more interested in their fine horses, "Gray Alice" and "Young Alice," than in the men. Jogging unconcernedly along until the town was hidden by a hill, General Toombs urged his horse into a run, and left "his friends, the enemy," far in the rear. It was a close call, but he did not breathe freely yet. There was possibility of pursuit, and when the party reached the residence of a Mr. Brown, a messenger was sent back to the town to mislead the soldiers should pursuit be attempted. From the hands of the enemy, General Toombs and his friend were now inducted into pleasanter scenes.

The house was decorated with lilies and orange blossoms. A wedding was on hand, and the bride happened to be the daughter of the host. Brown was a brave and determined man. He a.s.sured General Toombs that when the wedding guests a.s.sembled, there would be men enough on hand, should an attack be made, to rout the United States garrison, horse, foot, and dragoons. At Dr. Raines' place, on the Chattahoochee River, a horse drover happened to say something about Toombs. He gave the statesman a round of abuse and added: "And yet, they tell me that if I were to meet General Toombs and say what I think of him, I would either have a fight or he would convince me that he was the biggest man in the world."

Tired of the long horseback ride, having been nearly six months in the saddle, the men now secured an ambulance from Toombs' plantation in Stewart County, and crossed the river into Alabama. His faithful mare, which he was forced to leave behind, neighed pathetically as her master rode away in a boat and pulled for the Alabama sh.o.r.e. At Evergreen they took the train, and it seemed that half the men on the cars recognized General Toombs. General Joseph Wheeler, who was on board, did not take his eyes off him. Toombs became nervous under these searching glances, and managed to hide his face behind a paper which he was reading. At Tensas Station he took the boat for Mobile. There was a force of Federal soldiers on board, and this was the closest quarters of his long journey. There was now no chance of escape, if detected. The soldiers frequently spoke to General Toombs, but he was not in the slightest way molested.

At Mobile General Toombs took his saddle-bags and repaired to the home of his friend Mr. Evans, about four miles from the city. There he was placed in the care of Howard Evans and his sister, Miss Augusta J.

Evans, the gifted Southern auth.o.r.ess. Anxious to conceal the ident.i.ty of their guest, these hospitable young people dismissed their servants, and Miss Evans herself cooked and served General Toombs' meals with her own hands. She declared, with true hospitality, that she felt it a privilege to contribute to the comfort and insure the safety of the brilliant statesman. She was a Georgian herself, and with her this was a labor of love.

These were among the most agreeable moments of General Toombs' long exile. He loved the companions.h.i.+p of intellectual women, and the conversation during these days was full of brilliant interest. Miss Evans was a charming talker, as bright as a jewel, and Toombs was a Chesterfield with ladies. The general would walk to and fro along the shaded walks and pour forth, in his matchless way, the secret history of the ruin of Confederate hopes.

General Toombs wrote home, in courtly enthusiasm, of his visit to Mobile. Mr. Stephens sent Miss Evans a warm letter of thanks for her attentions to his friend. "I have," said he, "just received a letter from General Toombs, who has been so united with me in friends.h.i.+p and destiny all our lives, giving such account of the kind attentions he received from you and your father while in Mobile, that I cannot forbear to thank you and him for it in the same strain and terms as if these attentions had been rendered to myself. What you did for my friend, in this particular, you did for me."

While General Toombs was in Mobile, General Wheeler called upon the Evans family and remarked that he thought he had seen General Toombs on the train. Miss Evans replied that she had heard General Toombs was in Cuba.

Lieutenant Irvin went to New Orleans and secured from the Spanish Consul a pa.s.s to Cuba for "Major Luther Martin." At Mobile General Toombs took the boat _Creole_ for New Orleans. He seemed to be nearing the end of his long journey, but it was on this boat that the dramatic incident occurred which threatened to change the course of his wanderings at last. While General Toombs was at supper, he became conscious that one of the pa.s.sengers was eying him closely. He said to Lieutenant Irvin: "Charlie, don't look up now, but there is a man in the doorway who evidently recognizes me."