A decade and
a half had passed since the war for the possession of Texas and its border. The
Henry family had traveled the vast breadth of the state to return to Samuel’s
family home in Nacogdoches County and sent the eldest son, Thomas, off to West
Point to become something greater than a ranger or farmer like his father and
grandfather. James, unlike his older brother, decided that staying on the farm would
give him the greatest experience and opportunity to buy and sell cattle for the
rest of his life. He was just old enough to begin learning how to push a plow
with a horse or the trusty old gray mule but he had been helping with the
harvest every year. Samuel and Nora had worked hard to restore the farm to its
former glory. Some of the fencing had rotted and the wires were twisted but at
least the log cabin was built to last generations. A couple of years after
Samuel left home, his parents fell ill in their early-mid forties. In most parts of the country and in Europe,
the affliction was known as “white plague” but in the south, it is well known
as consumption. They both died within a year and were buried beside one another
under a row of tall pine trees at the edge of the farm.
At present,
Samuel Henry remains a Texas Ranger Captain and has a reputation as an
unmerciful lawman as well as having a pivotal role in turning the tide against
the Mexicans all those years ago. However, he is on the verge of retirement
when he’s called upon once more. The year is 1862 and the country is engrossed in the beginnings of war and eleven states have already withdrawn from the United States of
America and formed their own republic, the Confederate States of America. Since the election of Abraham Lincoln two
years prior, abolitionists in the North and South have come forward to advocate
for slavery to be outlawed. The Rangers had received reports that an underground
railroad had been constructed on the Rio Grande to move runaway slaves to
Mexico and to their freedom. Samuel left East Texas within a week on a trip
that would take many months by one horse alone. While visiting the trading post
in Nacogdoches, Nora had heard rumors of a Union blockade to keep food and
supplies out of the hands of C.S.A. soldiers. Having shown genuine curiosity
and concern as her oldest son is now an officer and having fought at Fort
Sumter and Bull Run, she couldn’t imagine her son being without food or
medicine and asked some of the traders if they had a way to get supplies to the
soldiers. There was indeed a way by blockade runners and smugglers. Nora was
more than willing to do her part for the sake of her son and future of her
family.
Late that
summer, Samuel arrived near the Mexican border state of Coahuila and assumed
command of operations along one-hundred miles of the lower river valley. He
reminisced of his days in the war. A stampede of sombrero-topped,
long-mustached men riding hard for the well-fortified city of Palo Alto and
firing pistols while mounted on their Andalusian stallions. Samuel and his
company of rangers patrolled the valley for a few weeks with no sign of any
tunnels or smuggling operations. He had received a telegraph from his wife
stating that during the Battle at Antietam in Maryland, their son had been
killed in action. It wasn’t until after
the war when his remains were recovered and buried on the family plot. The only
way Samuel knew how to deal with the loss of his son was to dedicate all of his
efforts to finding that reported underground railroad. He met with a fellow
ranger to discuss expanding the search lines further south and they both agreed
to organize it as soon as possible. Having grown up working his own land,
Samuel never understood why slaves were needed to do the work of lazy and
greedy men. He believed in the promise of freedom on which the United States
was built upon and he realized that the secession and escalating war was due to
the existence of the abolitionists.
One day
while tracking down a lead that a tunnel may be nearby, Samuel spotted a covered
wagon traveling down a small trail flanked on either side by multitudes of cacti
and mesquite shrubs. He and a fellow ranger, his senior, approached the wagon
and asked the driver to stop his horses. The driver saw their badges and guns
and quickly retaliated by drawing his pistol. The draw was too slow for an
experienced Texas Ranger and Samuel put two bullets in his chest and gut. They
dismounted their horses and walked to the back of the wagon and flipped the
canvas up to take a look inside. What they saw were at least a dozen runaway slaves
cramped into the wagon. Samuel saw a few children among them so he assumed at
least some of them are families. He ordered them out of the wagon and form a
line. The rangers working the valley carried several sets of chains and
shackles just in case they found any runaways that they might return to their
owners. His superior thought they’d be too much trouble because it was near
dusk and they would be traveling in Mexican territory in the dark. It was much
too dangerous to do even in daylight so he ordered Samuel to shoot them and
simply collect the bounty on them later. Samuel never killed innocents, runaway
or not, so of course he refused. He ordered him to shoot once more before
drawing his own pistol and aiming for the child in the center. Samuel protested
and punched the older man and knocked him to the ground. He drew his pistol and
fired once, killing the man.
Back in
Nacogdoches, Nora is now alone. With the death of her son, absence of her
husband and her youngest son now missing, her worries and grief dramatically
age her into an old woman. Her only wish was to have her family at home through
the dreaded and never ending war. She wished for the end every day but it
seemed like the day would never come. After killing a man, Samuel fled back
home as soon as he could to escape being hanged in Austin. He knew that
someday, someone would come searching for answers and ultimately, searching for
him and wherever he may be hiding. While riding into the coming winter weather,
he decided that a name change would be the best option to keep his family safe.
Not leaving Nacogdoches, as most would consider that the best option. He couldn’t
find it in his heart to leave his great state and flee to the North. If they
were ever caught, it would be likely that his family would be hanged as well.
He assumed the name of a fallen comrade he befriended many years ago. Ambrose
Bennett would be his name for the remainder of his life. When he learned of
James’ disappearance, he was heartbroken that he could never search for his son
for fear of the authorities discovering his true identity. He and his wife
spent the remainder of the war fighting off illness, hunger, and rebel bandits
who had gone AWOL and steal from anyone they find.
The war ended
in 1865 with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation
Proclamation stating that all slaves are to be made free under the protection
of a Constitutional Amendment. That amendment angered many southerners to such
an extent that bounty hunters and vigilantes roamed the southern states hunting
down anyone who may have aided in slave smuggling. The winter of 1867 was the
harshest since the beginning of the war. The snow was deep that year and the
air uncharacteristically cold for the aging Samuel and Nora Henry. He never
told his wife why he retired from service so suddenly and perhaps he thought he’d
blame it on an injury or claim to have been ill while in the valley. Early
morning Christmas Eve, a trio of men on horseback arrived at the farm and
offered the typical niceties to Samuel and his wife. It looked a bit odd and
out of place to him but he was always ready if anyone ever came to kill or
arrest him. The men got right to the point and asked if he was truly Captain
Samuel Henry and if he was in Rio Grande Valley the summer and winter of 1862. Samuel
asked Nora to go back inside but by then, the men had their guns drawn and aimed.
He slowly removed his gun belt and threw it to the ground and stated he was
willing to go with them. The three men dismounted and approached the
middle-aged and gray-bearded Samuel.
These men didn't look like the type he had served with in the past. These were younger men who
obviously weren't from Texas, chewed tobacco and acted like the crazy savages
he fought when he was a young man. As soon as the loud-mouthed man approached
him, Samuel snatched his gun away and fired and raising his sights and killing
another about twenty feet from him. The third man put a bullet in Samuel’s leg
and scrambled to disarm him. He pistol-whipped Samuel until he was unconscious,
leaving Nora to quickly run inside and grab a rifle. She shot at the last man
but missed. He returned fire and didn’t miss. Nora fell to her knees and
quickly collapsed in a heap. Contemplating about Samuel’s fate, the last man
standing left him there in the snow figuring that was enough punishment for an
ex-Ranger and went on his way as if he was the one defeated and driven away by
the rapid fire of the Winchester rifle Mrs. Henry was wielding.
©Ashley Yarbrough 12/2012
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