home to enlist as a drummer boy.
He found his way down the Mississippi on a barge, managed to locate the encampment
of the 2nd Minnesota before it joined Sherman’s drive to the sea. His cousin Jules
vouched for him and he was tentatively accepted (subject to training; he knew
nothing of drums, or of bugles) and was assigned quarters and rations with
headquarters company.
Then his father showed up and fetched him home.
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So Father’s service in the War was about three weeks and he was never in combat. He
was not credited even with those three weeks… as he learned to his dismay when he
attempted to join the Union veterans organisation, the Grand Army of the Republic.
There was no record of his service, as the regimental adjutant had `discharged’ him
and let Grampaw Acey take him home simply by destroying the paper work.
I think it is necessary to assume that Father was marked life.
During the nine days that Father and Tom waited at home before they could be
inducted into army life I saw no indication that Mother disapproved (other than her
first expression of surprise). But she never smiled. One could the tension between
our parents… but they did not let it be seen.
Father did say something to me that, I think, had bearing on this tension. We were
in his clinic and I was helping him to thin out and update his patients records so
that he could turn them over to Dr Chadwick for duration of the war. He said to me,
`Why no smiles, Turkey Egg? Worried about your young man?’
‘No,’ I lied. ‘He had to go; I know that. But I wish you weren’t going. Selfish, I
guess. But I’ll miss you, cher papa.’
`I’ll miss you, too. All of you.’ He was silent for several minutes, then he added,
‘Maureen, someday you may faced – will be faced, I think – with the same thing: your
husband going off to war. Some people say – I’ve heard talke that married men should
not go. Because of their families.
`But this involves a contradiction, a fatal one. The family man dare not hang back
and expect the bachelor to do fighting for him. It is manifestly unfair for me to
expect a bachelor to die for my children if I am unwilling to die for them myself.
Enough of that attitude on the part of married men and the bachelor will refuse to
fight if the married man stays safe at home… and the Republic is doomed. The
barbarian will walk in unopposed.’
Father looked at me – looked worried. ‘Do you see?’ I think he was honestly seeking
my opinion, my approval.
`I – ‘I stopped and sighed. ‘Father, I think I see. But at times like these I am
forced to realise that I am not very experienced. I just want this war to be over so
that you can come home and Tom will come home… and -‘
‘And Brian Smith? I agree.’
‘Well, yes. But I was thinking of Chuck, too. Chuck Perkins.’
`Chuck is going? Good lad!’
‘Yes, he told me today. His father has agreed and is going to Joplin with him
tomorrow.’ I sniffed back a tear. ‘I don’t love Chuck but I do feel sort of
sentimental about him.’
`That’s understandable.’
Later that day I let Chuck take me up on Marston Hill and defied chiggers and Mrs
Grundy and told Chuck I was proud of him and demonstrated it the very best I knew
how. (I did use a sheath; I had promised Father.) And an amazing thing happened. I
had gone up there simply intending to run through some female calesthenics to
demonstrate to Chuck that I was proud of him and appreciated his willingness to
fight for us. And the miracle happened. Fireworks, big ones! I got all blurry and my
eyes squinched shut and I found I was making loud noises.
And about half an hour later the miracle happened again. Amazing!
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Chuck and his father caught the eight-oh-six out of Butler the next morning and were