War creates ghosts in many forms. Some of these ghosts haunt the living in ways few realize. Such was the tale of Annalee Wilkin. Annalee was nineteen years old and very much in love with Vern Lithrop, the only son of Jesse and Sharla Lithrop. They'd been sweethearts nearly from birth.
Annalee was the only daughter in the Wilkin brood, outnumbered by four strapping brothers, Ernest, James, Lorn and Franklin. The Wilkin farm was located just a half mile down an old dirt road that washed out every spring from nearby Cotters Creek. This was a favorite fishing hole that provided many meals for Wilkin and Lithrop families. The Lithrop farm was at the far end of the dirt road. Between the two farms lay acres and acres of fields heavily laden with corn, collards, mustard greens, wild onions and neatly arranged poles of beans.
Ezra and Fionnula Wilkin were thankful for their sons, whose future was farming, without a doubt. Other farmers in Cottersville chose to grow cotton, tobacco and potatoes. Each Saturday morning, farmers of Cottersville loaded up their wagons and readied their horses for the twenty mile trip to Charlottesville to sell their goods.
Some Saturdays, the women came along to purchase supplies for the larders in their kitchens. Charlottesville, a seaport city, was unlike Cottersville, owing to its early history where booty was looted from shipwrecks off the rocky coastline and sold for profit. It was also a city where slaves were bought and sold by wealthy plantation owners.
Being among the poorer families in the state, neither the Wilkin or Lithrop family could afford slaves. They made do with the sweat of their own brow to manage their farms. A poor family could purchase ten acres for relatively little financial investment in Cottersville, due to its isolation from urban areas. Plantations of wealthy men dotted the state's landscape like an expensive satin quilt. The only sharing was the balmy air and gentle breezes that the poor and rich alike enjoyed the year round.
Annalee and Vern rarely traveled into Charlottesville. Often, when Jesse or Ezra made their way to the big city, Sharla and Fionnula, called "Fi" by Ezra, stayed behind with the children and tended to the chores. It was always a feeling of celebration when the men returned with huge sacks of flour, sorghum and rice that would provide months of food for these families.
Cottersville had an interesting history. The oldest farm in this community was still owned by a third generation Cotter. The first Cotter being, Sam Braddock Cotter, an Englishman who ran from British rule to the "colonies" to live as he pleased on his own land, without fear of the oppression of British taxation.
Lydon Cotter, his grandson, was a recluse. The children of the farmers stayed clear of his land because he was quick with a shotgun and slow to care who he shot.
Lydon Cotter was nearing his dotage. He married once to Harriet (Hattie) Tyler Jennings, a true southern belle from wealthy parents. It was a marriage Lydon hoped would help his waning financial situation. Before their tenth anniversary though, Hattie contracted a deadly fever that took her life before she was thirty years old. Lydon never recovered from the loss.
He still kept slave labor to maintain the needs of the farm. After all, it was free. He had naught but to give them a shack to live in, a patch of ground for their gardens and see to it their work was done every day according to his dictates.
In his boyhood, Vern Lithrop fished in the Cottersville Creek and took the long way around to avoid the Cotter Farm. Some days, he'd see Lydon Cotter sitting on his front porch with a paper in his hand or sipping lemonade handed to him by his man servant. There were certain creature comforts of inherited wealth Lydon refused to relinquish.
Ezra and Jesse rarely had time to stop and talk. Mostly, they'd tip their hats as they passed on the road to Charlottesville. Still, Ezra and Jesse both hoped in their heart of hearts Vern and Annalee would marry and the two men would incorporate their land into one huge plantation. Then maybe they would be able to afford slave labor like old Lydon Cotter. It wasn't a surprise either that Sharla and Fi hid this secret dream for their offspring, as well.
As Annalee blossomed into a true southern beauty, Fi wished they had the money to dress her in finer clothes. With her flash of crimson hair and green eyes, not even Vern could look away when Annalee was about. Her hourglass figure was perfection and her lithe, graceful arms projected a languid movement not unlike a swan.
One sunny afternoon in March 1861, two men on horseback rode up to the crossbuck fence of the Wilkin farm. Ezra and the boys were out in the field when they first heard the horses. All five ran toward the house.
"Fi! Stay in the house!" Ezra called.
"Papa, who are those men?" Ernest, his oldest son asked.
"Don't know as yet. Be sure I intend to find out," Ezra replied.
He walked to their porch and reached for his rifle...just in case.
The two men on horseback came to a full stop by the Wilkin gate.
"Something I can do for you gentlemen?" Ezra asked.
"Yes. As a matter of fact," the taller man in the black day coat said.
"We're from the Confederate office," the second man said.
"The name's Andrew Mayhew...Captain Andrew Mayhew," he said.
"My name's Lieutenant Clyde Bonner," the second man said.
"What your business here?" Ezra asked.
"Y'all heard? War's on with the Yankees. You got boys needed to fight," Mayhew demanded.
"I got sons need to help on my farm," Ezra replied.
"Your Confederacy needs your boys. They go with us now or they will sit out the war in prison as traitors," Bonner said, sternly.
"All of them? Lorn and Frank are not yet fifteen. The Confederacy is taking children to fight a man's war?" Ezra hissed.
"You sayin' you are on the side of the Yankees?" Mayhew asked.
"No! I'm saying get the hell off my land, now if you don't want to be layin' six feet under," Ezra shouted, defiantly.
Fi and Annalee looked on in horror from the front door, as Ezra raised the rifle and fired, startling the two horses beneath the men. The horses bucked and reared as Mayhew and Bonner tried to reach for their rifles. The two took off in haste down the dirt road.
"You boys need to gather up your things. I ain't giving my sons up for no rich man. You leave tonight for your aunt and uncle's home out of state," Ezra said.
"But, Papa...those men will be stalkin' us the minute we leave here," James said.
"Not if you take the raft down the creek. They won't be expectin' you to run on water...jest on land," Ezra said.
Cottersville Creek had a small tributary that flowed into the White Oak River and that river headed out toward the sea in Charlottesville. Ezra felt this was the safest way for his boys to escape.
When the two men backtracked past the Wilkin home, Vern Lithrop was riding rear saddle behind Mayhew. Vern's hands were tied at the wrists.
At dinner that night, Ezra told Fi his plan to get his boys out of harm's reach. When he mentioned that Vern had been captured by the two Confederates, Annalee went pale. Would she ever see Vern again? Her heart felt as if ice formed around it in a huge block.
"Don't worry, daughter, I am sure Vern won't be called up. He's the only Lithrop son. They'd as soon call up the three Lithrop daughters than take an only son. That's why they wanted our four. They figure one out of four will survive the war. Your Vern will be returned home on the morrow," Ezra said.
Fi was not so sure. Annalee's doleful expression brightened. She waited and waited patiently the whole next day for the sound of horses bringing Vern back to his farm. Days passed, then weeks.
Cottersville, being in a remote, heavily wooded area of the state, would mean spies and other unsavory characters hiding out in the forest or foraging for food from farmers. It also meant news of their sons would not be quick or forthcoming. Ezra could only hope and pray his boys made it to the seaport city and to their kin safely.
Fi Wilkin wore a pained expression on her face nearly all the time. This was not what Ezra wanted for the beauty he married and gave him four sons and a daughter. He tenderly patted her shoulder while she stood at the stove stirring a pot of stew. He knew his wife was not the type to complain. Yet, her silence spoke loudly of her sadness at the loss of her sons and the dangers that awaited them.
Ezra, being a man of principle drove off to the Lithrop farm on a hot summer July day. He knew the agony Jesse and Sharla must be in, in proportion to his own.
Ezra was a man of honor. He wasn't a loyal Confederate. In fact, he believed a man should mind his business before he went off minding the business of others. He hated that his sons could be placed in grave danger so a rich man could run his plantation on free labor. Ezra recalled the words of his grandfather on slavery: "Never did make a rich man rich enough to take his fortune with him."
He dismounted from his horse and called out to Jesse. When he got no answer, he looked around. It was clear the farm had not been tended to since Vern was taken by those two Confederates.
"Lithrop? You about?" Ezra called, louder than before.
He walked up to the porch. Something deep down in his bones gave him an icy chill. He didn't know why. He called from outside the door. Then, he knocked. The door opened slowly as if a ghost answered.
"Mizz Lithrop? Jess? You here?" he called.
Nothing in the front room was amiss. He wasn't the type to push into any man's home. Cautiously, he walked down the short hall to the kitchen. He gasped in horror. Jesse Lithrop lay sprawled on the floor, blood dried around his upper torso. The body of his wife, Sharla was crumpled beside him face down, with her left arm seeming to reach for Jesse.
Ezra was horrified. The couple had been dead for a fortnight at least. Their bodies were already beginning to decompose and the odor in the kitchen was sickening. Ezra ran for the front door, hung over the porch bannister and vomited violently.
He knew what he had to do. He couldn't leave Jesse and Sharla lying there like that. He went around to the wood shed and found a spade. He walked up the crest of the hill on the north side of the farm where an old live oak stood for nearly one hundred years. He dug two six foot deep holes in the ground, wiped the sweat from his brow and headed back to the Lithrop house.
He had to drag Jesse's body slowly and very carefully. In death, the body seemed weigh twice what it did in life. He placed Jesse's body in the first grave and covered it with the dirt he'd dug. Then, he carried Sharla's body to her resting place and did the same. He marked both graves with two boulders he found nearby.
"Jesse, Mizz Lithrop? I ain't a prayerful man. Y'all know that. I'll just grant my hopes for your eternal rest in peace, by and by," Ezra said, replacing his hat on his head.
Fi knew something was terribly wrong by the expression on her husband's face.
"Ezra? What is it? What happened?" she asked.
Annalee looked up from her sewing.
"Papa?" What is it?" she echoed Fi's question.
"I was out to the Lithrop farm just now. They did it! Satan be damned! They did it! They murdered Jesse and his missus. Shot 'em dead, right there ...in their own kitchen."
Fi began to cry. Through tears, she asked if Ezra knew who'd killed the couple.
"You know well as I who did that to these fine people. Those two Confederates. When I ran them off, they were headed down the dirt road. Must have tried to take Vern and Jesse tried to stop them. Only reason for two innocent people to be shot dead like that...to save their son's life."
"But, you said they took Vern with them," Fi said.
"Yes. They did. If I know Jesse Lithrop, it wasn't without a fight," Ezra said.
"Is there anything we should be doin'?" Fi asked.
"I buried them up on the hill by that old oak tree. Seemed like the right and proper thing to do," Ezra said.
"Now, there's one thing needs sayin' and it's this..I'm the only man left in this part of Cottersville. Those woods are like to be dangerous. I don't need to tell you to stay away from them and don't go out unless I'm working outdoors," Ezra said.
Being in an an isolated farming area, Ezra told the women they were safe, if they kept to the house as he warned.
It wasn't long before the first phalanx of scalawags found Cottersville woods. At first, it was just a few strays running from the Confederates. Then, it was slaves running from their masters in the dark of night. The only way the Wilkins knew the war was ending was the growing number of ragged soldiers passing on the dirt road looking like scarecrows in a corn field.
Annalee waited for Vern. With each Confederate soldier who passed by, she hoped one of them would be Vern. She thought about how he would feel when he discovered his parents had been murdered by the Confederates who abducted him and forced him to fight.
Ezra heard gun fire from across the woods. Every day more and more of it. He knew the Confederate Army discovered the hideouts of traitors in Cottersville woods and were hunting them down. When finally the war ended, the woods were loaded with freed slaves trying to head up Cottersville Creek to make their way north.
When Ezra announced that Lee surrendered and the War was over, Annalee felt as if a weight had been lifted from her soul. Now, she and Vern could try to make a life together as soon as he returned home. As the year passed after the ending of the war, Annalee sensed the possibility Vern might not be coming home. After all, he did try to run from those two Confederates to avoid joining up.
Life went on as summer turned to winter and winter into spring. The woods were finally empty and silent once more. When the summer of 1867 arrived, the heat was oppressive and the sun blistered everything including Wilkin crops. The Lithrop farm was in a state of negligence, with no one left to tend to it.
Vern will inherit the farm and it will be in order once more, Ezra thought.
Vern...Annalee thought.
She walked down to Cottersville Creek as she and Vern had done as children. She threw a pebble in and counted the ripples it made in the stream. Vern had said that if she made a wish, threw a pebble into the creek and it created ten ripples, she'd get her wish.
She threw a small white pebble as far as she could and made a wish, "My wish is for Vern's return," she whispered.
She picked a handful of wild flowers that were nearly dried and shriveled from the summer drought. As she approached the center region of the dirt road, she looked into the woods. For one split second, she thought she saw something move amid the brush.
Just a hare or a squirrel, she thought. She continued on home. In the distance ahead, she thought she saw figures moving toward her. As the figures grew larger, she recognized them and started to run to them. She screamed when she stopped and saw the faces of Ernest, James, Lorn and Franklin.
"This can't be! Where have you boys been? It's been two years since the war ended! Oh my! Papa and Mama will be so thrilled. Hurry on now you four. In fact...run...fast as you can," Annalee said.
She followed in a light prance behind until they reached the gate of the Wilkin home. Ezra let out a wild roar when he spied his sons.
Fearing something terrible happened to her husband, Fi ran out of the house and down the porch steps to see Ezra and all four sons hugging each other for dear life.
"Mama! We're home..For good," Lorn said.
"Look, we even made sure our little brother got back here safe and sound," James said, with a laugh.
Tears streamed down Fi's face. She could barely breathe for the happiness she felt. As Annalee reached the Wilkin gate, she looked down the dirt road and felt a pain in her heart. Vern had not come home.
The Cottonville woods were loaded with pine, oak and elm trees. Ezra began to hear the sound of saws in the woods. He walked down the dirt road. Lumbermen were cutting trees and felling them faster than the blink of an eye. Soon, nothing would be left of Cottersville woods.
He decided to check on the Lithrop farm. He'd done this every week since Jesse and Sharla Lithrop were murdered. He went back for his horse and rode to the Lithrop Farm. There was a "For Sale" sign at the front gate of the farm.
How can that be? Ezra wondered. With Vern gone, the Lithrop girls must have decided he wasn't coming back from the war and had to sell to make ends meet. He knocked on the door. The youngest Lithrop daughter, Belle, answered.
"Mr. Wilkin, welcome. Won't you come in? I'm afraid we were not expecting company. Please excuse the disorder of our home," Belle said.
As soon as her sisters, Katy and Penelope heard the male voice, they hurried into the drawing room.
"Why, it's Mistuh Wilkin, Penny. Sure is a pleasure for your company, sir," Katy said, with a slight bow.
"I come to ask why there's a "For Sale" sign at your gate," Ezra asked.
"With our parents gone and no word from brother Vern, we can't manage here all by ourselves," Belle said.
"You were not here when your parents were...were.." Ezra started.
"When those two Confederates murdered them?" Belle said.
"We were. We lay in hiding in the attic. When Papa heard them at the front gate, Mama ordered us to hide. Vern stayed with Mama and Papa. He felt he could help Papa defend himself, if the need came. Instead, they barged into the house with Papa following. As Vern approached, Captain Mayhew ordered his man, Bonner, to take Vern. They struggled. Papa tried to come between them. But, Bonner knocked Vern out and then tied his hands while Mayhew kept his rifle on Papa. We could hear the goin's on from the attic. The next thing we heard were two shots. We waited and waited for days before we left the attic. We found Mama and Papa on the floor in the kitchen. Their bodies were too heavy to move.
So, we stayed in the attic. Then, we saw you coming. We weren't sure if you were with the Confederates, so we daren't let our presence be found out. You took the bodies, one by by one. You buried them on Lithrop Hill under that live oak, did you not?" Belle asked.
"Yes. You girls would have been made welcome in our home. Why didn't you come to us?" Ezra asked.
"We saw all kinds of men coming out of the woods. We were scared to leave," Katy said.
"Best you didn't then. What's done is done. Now, about the sale of your farm, would you sell it to me? I'd pay a dear price for it. You could stay in the house and I'd have my four sons look after the farm. You could take in the money for your goods again," Ezra said.
"Oh, Mr. Wilkin, we don't even need to do that. We will give you the farm. Penny, run out and pull down the "For Sale" sign. I'll get the deed and sign it over to you," Belle said.
"I'll not buy a farm for free," Ezra said.
He reached into his pocket for a silver dollar he kept for good luck. He handed it to Belle.
"I'll be needin' a receipt for my purchase," Ezra said, grinning.
When he returned home and told Fi, Annalee and the boys, the Wilkin family couldn't believe their good fortune. But, their good fortune was to double. Soon after, the Wilkin boys tended to both farms. Ernest and James took a shine to Belle and Katy. It wasn't long before the two couples married and moved into the Lithrop home. Ezra and Fi were delighted. Annalee felt desolate and despairing.
"Annalee, I know you had planned to marry Vern since you were a little sprout," Ezra said.
"Yes, Papa. But, it's been nearly five years with no word. I feel as if I am waiting for a ghost," she said.
"Do you feel deep down Vern is still alive?" Fi asked.
"I...I don't know what I feel, Mama," she answered.
With only Frank and Annalee left at the Wilkin home, it fell to them to care for their aging parents. Lorn fell madly in love with Penelope Lithrop. Ezra gave him a piece of land to build their home. Lorn and Frank, with the help of Ernest and James, kept the Wilkin farm producing year after year.
Ezra and Fi found a new distraction: Grandchildren. Now, they had nine.
"Fi? Did you ever think we would have nine grandchildren we you married me?" Ezra said laughing.
"I hoped for a dozen," she replied.
Ezra and Fi lamented over their daughter's inability to find a husband. Fi knew Annalee didn't really try. They extracted a promise from their sons that after Ezra and Fi's deaths, the boys would make certain Annalee was cared for.
By 1879, Ezra passed on. Fi followed him two months later. The Wilkin farm house felt empty to Annalee. She felt she's lost everything she loved most. First Vern, now her parents. She tried hard to be happy with her new status as "Aunt Annie" which her nieces and nephews delighted in calling her.
There were times when she baked cookies or little pecan tarts for them when she could forget Vern. Just not often enough to make him disappear completely. Cottersville woods were nearly all gone and was replaced by a large open field with stumps protruding from the soil.
Annalee Wilkin treasured the little keepsakes she received from Vern. The funny little pebble bracelet he made for her. A dried ring of daisies she kept pressed in her poem book and the pink satin ribbon he bought for her ninth birthday. She fingered the ribbon tenderly as if it was Vern's guiding hand holding hers.
Tears streamed down her wrinkled face. She couldn't remember her ninth birthday party with her parents and her brothers, as clearly as she remembered Vern. His face never changed. He was still young, still handsome and still the most wonderful gift she ever received.
When the lumbermen had cleared away nearly all of Cottersville woods, Annalee grabbed for her walking stick and decided to cross into the woods. She felt the need for a long, long walk. She crossed the dirt road slowly. Why hurry? There was no place to go. There was no one expecting her to visit. Nor, was there anyone she felt she wanted to visit with.
As she walked, she tried to imagine what her wedding day with Vern would have been like. She envisioned their first home and their children.
She had to step cautiously for all of the stumps that once were age-old trees. She looked across at the barrenness of Cottersville woods. A slight wind gust took her skirt immodestly. She smoothed it back in place.
Suddenly, she felt as if her whole body had gone as cold as a tomb. She pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders. There was a slight rise in the land ahead. She debated whether it was wise to continue on. Her back ached and her legs felt heavy.
Still, she soldiered forward. When she came to mid point of the rise, she noticed something odd. Here, the soil was badly eroded.
There was something poking out of the soil. It was metal and curved. She poked at it with her walking stick. She used the stick to scrape at the soil until the object came loose. She leaned as far forward as she could to retrieve it and brushed the dirt from it. It was a medal of some kind. She squinted harder to try to read the inscription: Vern Lithrop, Corporal, The Confederate Army.
