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| Fort Union, New Mexico - today Fort Union National Monument, Drawing from around 1855 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
After returning to
Fort Union from their assignment in the town of Maxwell, Ben Carter and his men
were allowed a few days to rest and regroup.
First, though, before they could even
think about resting, they had to get all their gear and equipment in good
order. As sergeant in charge of the detachment, Ben insisted on that. This
meant cleaning their carbines and revolvers to make sure no grit or moisture
was inside to cause the metal to rust or seize up, their tenting, belts, ropes,
and mess gear had to be thoroughly scoured, and their boots and uniforms
cleaned. Ben didn’t make the men shine their boots when they were in the field,
but insisted that the leather shine like glass when they were in garrison.
But, Fort Union was the regimental
headquarters, so it wouldn’t to have his detachment looking anything but their
best. The largest army post in New Mexico Territory, it looked from a distance
like anything but what it was. Without stockades or breastworks, the open
arrangement of adobe structures consisting of company and officers’ quarters,
stables, machine shops, hospital, and other buildings, looked more like a small
village than a military installation.
Ben’s detachment had been assigned to
company quarters in the complex on the southwest side of the fort, west of the
hospital. To the northwest was the mechanics corral and quarters where the men
who maintained the regiment’s equipment stayed. Northeast of the barracks were
the quarters for the married enlisted men, rooms in which the forts’
laundresses worked, and each company’s stables where their horses were kept. To
the west were the houses in which the regiment’s white officers lived, arranged
in a neat row, with the commander’s house, a large structure, in the center.
Further northwest were additional officers’ quarters, the regimental
headquarters building, the quartermaster office, commissary office and an
office for the regimental clerks. Due north from their barracks was the
transportation corral, with more horses and the wagons used to carry the
supplies needed by the regiment.
Because most of the companies of the Ninth
were stationed further west in the territory so they would be closer to the
Apache tribes that they were supposed to keep on the reservations, Fort Union
was almost deserted. Even the ‘entertainment’ tents that were often located
just outside the fort proper, were less populated than Ben remembered they’d
been when he’d first been assigned there; no doubt they’d moved to where the
largest concentration of troops were.
Never mind that, he thought; that meant
fewer distractions for his men as they worked to get their gear in order.
After two days of cleaning, scrubbing, and
grumbling, he was finally satisfied that they were still the best looking unit
at Fort Union – notwithstanding that they were nearly the only unit at the fort at present; when he announced that fact, the
barracks to which they’d been assigned vibrated with the roaring cheer they
gave him. Ben, Sam Hightower, Marcus Scott, and Malachi Davis decided to spend
their few days of rest at the fort, ‘resting and reading,’ as Davis said, while
the remaining six men of the detachment, with a month’s pay, as meager as it
was, burning holes in their pockets, chose to explore the surrounding
countryside – which Ben knew meant, with the depopulation of the entertainment
district just outside the fort, the nearest saloon in the nearest town, and he
tried not to think of what they’d be doing until they ran out of money.
For the first three days after they left,
Ben would get up each day, clean his barrack’s area, and spend a good part of
the day talking to one of the others. But, after a while, they ran out of
things to talk about. Now, he would walk around the fort; not a lot to see
after doing it twice; or sit in the barracks reading or cleaning and
re-cleaning his gear.
On the morning of the fourth day, or maybe
it was the fifth or sixth; he’d lost track; Ben was sitting on the edge of his
bunk, rubbing beeswax into the leather of his boots for the sixth or seventh
time, when Lieutenant Colin Montgomery walked in. Ben hadn’t seen the young
officer but once or twice since their return from Maxwell. He’d developed
respect for him during the mission, feeling that Montgomery would make a fine
cavalry officer. He thought he’d been sent out to his new unit.
Ben stood to attention as Montgomery, clad
sensibly now in trousers and tunic more appropriate for field duty instead of
his full uniform, as he’d been when they first met, came near.
“Stand easy, sergeant,” Montgomery said in a mild voice. “Sit down. I
came to say my goodbyes. I’m off to Fort Staunton this afternoon. I’ll be
adjutant of the unit up there.”
Ben resumed his seat on the end of the
bunk. Montgomery sat next to him. While he was as neat as always, he had at
least let his mustache grow out and become a bit ragged at the ends. Ben smiled
at his efforts to look more like someone who belonged on the frontier rather
than some plantation mansion drawing room.
“Congratulations, sir,” Ben said. “I never
been to Fort Staunton, but I hear it’s right pretty up that way.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that as well.” Montgomery
played with the ends of his mustache. “Of course, I doubt I’ll get much chance
to do any sightseeing. I understand the commander there’s in a bit of trouble
with the locals and with army headquarters. I imagine I’ll be busy just doing
my job.”
“I’m sure you’ll do well, sir.” Ben
noticed that the young lieutenant beamed. Dang, he thought, I don’t know why my
opinion matters to him. “I wish you well.”
“Thank you, Sergeant Carter. That means a
lot to me. I- I just wanted to say, too
. . . well, - - oh hell, look, sergeant, I just want you to know that, working
with you, I learned more about leading men than I did the whole four years I
was at West Point. I appreciate what you did for me, and I just want you to
know that.”
“No need thanking me, sir,” Ben said,
ducking his head. “I was just doing what any good sergeant should do.”
Montgomery smiled, one side of his mouth
going higher than the other. He then made a chuckling sound deep in his throat.
“That, I think, is one of the greatest lessons you taught; there’s no need to
trumpet your abilities, just quietly do your duty. Well, Ben Carter, you did
your duty, and from what I saw, you do it better than any other man in this
army.”
Montgomery stood and stuck out his hand.
“I’m proud to have known you, and hope
that one day I’ll get a chance to serve with you again.”
Ben stood and took the outstretched hand.
“Same here, sir,” he said.
When Montgomery released his grip, he
placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder. He let it rest there a few moments, looking
into the young sergeant’s brown face. Then, he nodded, removed his hand, turned
on his heels and, with his shoulders straight, marched out of the barracks.
Ben looked at his retreating back. He
could still feel the pressure of the man’s hand on his shoulder. He smiled.
Just as he sat and resumed waxing his
boots, Malachi Davis rushed into the room, almost colliding into Ben’s bunk in
his haste.
“Whoa, Malachi,” Ben said. “You look like
you’ve seen a ghost. What’s the matter?”
Davis stood there, gulping in air. His
eyes were big round orbs in his dark brown face.
“B-ben,” he said between gasps for air. “I
d-done run all the way here from regimental headquarters. The c-colonel he done
sent me to fetch you. D-done said it important and you to c-come right away.”
Ben noticed that Davis’s stuttering, which
went away when he was in the field, especially when he was in battle, came back
whenever they were in the fort.
“Did he say what it was about?”
“N-naw, and I ain’t been askin’ him
neither. The c-colonel say git Sergeant Carter to m-my office, I do what he
say.”
Ben shrugged. “Okay, let’s go.” He pulled
on his boots, which he could now see his reflection in, and stood. Clapping the
young private on the shoulder, he motioned him toward the door.
As they made their way from the barracks
toward the headquarters building, which sat near the middle of the fort, Ben
noticed a number of new recruits, who were housed in the company quarters north
of his, also making their way toward the headquarters.
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