Wellington's Quest by Robert F. Clifton (best books to read now .TXT) 📕

Wellington's Quest

by

Robert F. Clifton

Wellington's Quest

__________

Wellington's Quest

Copyright © 2013 by Robert F. Clifton

This work originally copyright filed under the title “Whispering Grass”

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

Editor J. Bill Blackmore

This book is dedicated to my Granddaughter, Elise Clifton.

Dear one, this is for you.

WELLINGTONS QUEST

by

ROBERT F. CLIFTON

Preface

In 1862 the Sioux Tribes of Minnesota, cheated by traders and the Bureau Of Indian Affairs raised up in rebellion against white settlers near Mankato and Ulm. It is thought that over eight hundred citizens were murdered and some butchered. Much of the city of Ulm was burnt to the ground. At the same time many captives were taken,

never to be seen again by their loved ones.

This is a story of one man's search for his finance'.A story of fiction based on historical fact, as James Wellington travels across the grassland and badlands of the Dakota Territory looking for her. While doing so he must fight in the battles that are the beginnings of the Indian Wars and in particular the battles of Stone Hill and Killdeer Mountain. He serves with Generals Sibley and Sully and while doing so forms a different opinion of the Indian.

Historically the leader of the Sioux tribe in the rebellion was a man named “Little Crow”. Since this is a work of fiction I created and replaced “Little Crow” with the name “Matosapa” as Chief of the Mdewakatana Dakota Sioux.

1. Chapter One

The Wars Begin

James Wellington pulled the wide brim, felt hat down tighter on his head then adjusted the bandana so that it again covered his face.

The winter wind constantly blew a flurry at him and he lowered his head in order to keep snowflakes driven by the blizzard out of his eyes. As he did he saw the clouds of steamy breath exhaled by his mount as it struggled through the deep drifts. He knew the animals were tired, so was he, but he urges them forward, on to the copse of pines he saw in the distance. There, among the trees they would have shelter, a fire, blankets to cover them and food to eat.

Snow, cold and blizzards were nothing new to him. The winter wind Born and raised on a farm near Mankato, Minnesota winters there were mild in the valley, but he spent time in the North Woods where the cold could kill. The extreme cold brought back recollections and as he headed for the trees memories came back to him.

Growing up on a farm meant constant labor. There was the plowing, planting, harvesting, slopping the hogs, mucking the stalls, then creating two separate piles of manure, one horse and mule, the other cow, each type used for fertilizer for a different crop. At night he sat before the fireplace or with just the glow of an oil lamp and ground corn into meal or wheat into flour testing the quality of He enjoyed winter. Winter met less chores, less work and the chance to go into the wilderness to hunt, to trap. By the time he was twelve years old he had trapped beaver, but mostly muskrat. With the money he received from the sale of the pelts he bought his first rifle, an old, Pennsylvania Rifle, complete with powder horn, bullet mold, flints and lead, all for the price of ten dollars. With the rifle he could hunt, take game, provide meat for the table. He took moose and deer, ducks and geese. If he didn't hunt he fished and his mothers table never lacked.

Other than his distaste for farming James Wellington had a happy life. He lived with his aging mother, his sister and her husband. Two miles away was another farm owned by the Martin family. Tom and Martha Martin had two sons, Tom Junior age twenty eight, Henry age twenty four and one daughter, Virginia, soon to be eighteen.

Jim had known Virginia first, as a neighbor, then as a member of the congregation at church. At first he paid little or no attention to her, but as she grew and blossomed he watched a metamorphosis that transformed her into a beautiful, young lady.

She had strawberry blond hair and always wore a blue bow in it. She had pale blue eyes and four perfectly placed freckles across the bridge of her nose. Small boned and petite she had a smile that delighted him, a giggle that made him laugh and an excellent mind that made him pay attention.

He didn't have to ask her to marry him. They both took the idea of marriage to each other as a long ago conclusion. Neither of them actually enjoyed farm life, but neither one of them knew anything else or any other life style. They both settled their minds accepting the fact that as a married couple their livelihood would depend on farming.

They had two choices. The first, was to live on the Martin farm, but Jim could not vision himself taking orders from the Martin men. The second alternative was to live on the Wellington farm. Jim, as the only son received the farm upon his father's death when the man died in the field digging out a tree stump.

Taking over the responsibility of operating the farm was no problem at first, then his brother-in-law, Ben Conner’s, ten years older than Jim began complaining that as a member of the family he deserved more of the profits after the harvest when the crops were sold.

Jim never particularly liked Ben Conner's. First of all he was a man in his thirties when he married Jim's sister, Amanda. Amanda had only been sixteen. Although the marriage of older men to young girls or women was the custom, Jim did not approve and he told Ben what he thought at the time. As a result the two men never got along. Most times the tension between the two men radiated making things in the household difficult.

Now, looking forward to his own marriage he could foresee many problems. One would be bringing a young wife into a house that had two other women. Virginia was use to a home where the men earned the living and the women ran the household. Jim's mother and sister would rule the roost. His problem still wasn't solved when on April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was fired upon and the Civil War began.

President Lincoln called for volunteers to put down the rebellion and on April 14, 1861, the State of Minnesota began enlisting

men for its regiments. Tom and Henry Martin were taking a wagon into Mankato to enlist. They stopped at the Wellington farm and asked Jim if he wanted to go with them. For an answer Jim climbed up into the wagon.

As the three young men rode down the dusty, dirt, road that led to Mankato, they spoke on what they thought army life would be like and that it was a once in a life time opportunity for adventure. They mentioned the fact that the rebellion would be put down in just three or four months and how lucky they were to be a part of it. They wondered on what sights they would see. Would they see Atlanta? Would they go to New Orleans? Was it possible that they would see plantations and cotton fields? They were still discussing their future when Henry Martin stopped the horse drawn wagon in front of the recruiting office in Mankato.

When they went inside they were met by a Sergeant of the regular army. “You boy's intend to sign up?”, he asked.

“Yes sir”, Tom Martin answered.

“Good, first we'll have the doctor look at you and if he says you're fit, I'll have you sign the enlistment papers. You'll be some of the first to join the Minnesota Volunteers”, said the Sergeant.

Jim Wellington was the first in line. He stood quietly while the doctor looked into his eyes, then his teeth and then listened to his heart by placing his ear to Jim's chest. Finally, raising his head he said, “I noticed that when you walked in here that you have a slight limp. Walk to the front door, turn around and walk back to me”

Jim did what he was told. “What's wrong with your left foot?”, asked the doctor.

“They tell me that when I was a Tot I wandered into the barn and watched my mother milking a cow. It's been said that the cow was startled and stepped back. When she did she trampled my foot. Seems my foot was crushed at the time. My mother says the doctor came and set the bones to right, but the foot never healed in the right manner. I've had a limp ever since.”

“I see. I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject you son. With a limp like that, even though it's a slight hobble you wouldn't be able to march”, said the doctor.

“Then put me in the Calvary”, Jim replied.

“There are times when the Calvary dismounts, fights on foot, or walk their horses. They don't ride all the time”, said the Sergeant, interrupting.

Jim stood and watched the Martin boys sign their enlistment papers and he felt the emptiness, the feeling of not being chosen. Now, he would be considered just one of those who was unfit to serve his state

and his country in its time of need and he was filled with remorse.

The three young men were silent on the trip back to their homes. The Martin boys knew what was going through Jim's mind, so they remained quiet.

When they arrived at the Wellington farm Jim jumped off of the wagon, said a, “Thank you and good by” and headed for the fields

now covered with young, two and three foot stalks of corn. Just beyond the cornfield stood a sour apple tree and when he reached the place where it grew he slowly sat down and leaned back against the trunk. Despondent, he could not believe what had happened to him in Mankato.”Rejected! Not fir for service!” The words continually raced through his mind. “Rejected, all because of a slight limp”, he could not understand it. He had limped on that foot since he was two or three years old. It had never stopped him.

He worked the farm everyday. He plowed, he planted, lifted bales of hay, dug tree stumps out of the ground. In winter he hiked the woods. There he trapped, hunted, fished, survived on his own.

In those woods he endured the hardships of cold, rain, snow, often walking miles following game trails and animal tracks. Still, the doctor had rejected him, saying,”He was not fit for service”.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw something move and he turned to see Virginia coming through the cornfield as she headed for him. When she neared he got up slowly. Finally, as she stood in front of him she took his hand and on tip toe raised up and kissed him. “My brothers told me what happened”, she said.

“I knew they would”, he answered.

She waited a moment before responding. Finally, she replied. “Well, I'm glad. I don't want you marching off to war. Getting shot at, maybe even getting killed.”

“Seems that you know more than the doctor. He said that I couldn't march. Yet, you have me marching off to war”, said Jim.

“The only march I want you to do is the wedding march”, said Virginia.

He smiled at her. “That's one march I want to make too, but it ain't right that all the other fellows around here are doing their part, joining up. When