Susan Beth Pfeffer - Devils Den

Devils Den

Susan Beth Pfeffer

In honor of the Hillside Civil War Graves Project, and in memory of my Civil War veteran, John G. Phillips, 1st Lt. Company D, Eighty-first New York Regiment of Infantry. Born in 1837 in Oswego, New York. Died in 1883.

Oh, no, Ben said to Mom and me, as we were getting ready to leave the house. I didnt buy a flag.

I dont think well need one, Mom replied. Im sure the committee put flags on all the veterans graves.

Youre right, Ben said. As a matter of fact, thats why I didnt buy one. Its coming back to me now.

Joey, do you think these are enough flowers? Mom asked me. She had half a lilac bush in her arms, as well as some tulips and daffodils.

Thats more than enough, Mom, I said to her.

Why didnt you take some of those fancy daffodils you like so much? Ben asked her.

I almost did, Mom said. And then I thought that kind of daffodil didnt exist back then. So I went with the kinds of simple flowers Joshua Gibbs would have been familiar with.

Nice touch, Ben said, and gave Mom a peck on the cheek. Theyve been married for over five years, and he still does that kind of thing. Come on, gang. We want to get to this cemetery while theres still daylight.

You mean so well get back before the ball game, Mom said. And we have plenty of time for that. Joey, are you ready?

Of course I was ready. We were only going a mile or so to the local cemetery. After that, we were going to have lunch out and then get back in time for the ball game. Bens a longtime Yankee fan, and he hasnt been the same since they won the Series.

Youll have to take Mike to the cemetery soon, Mom said to me as we got into the car. She dropped one of her tulips and bent down to pick it up. As though one less tulip was going to matter to Joshua Gibbs. Hed been dead for over a hundred years by now, and the way I pictured him, hed never been one for flowers anyway.

But Mom had insisted. When you go to a cemetery, you bring flowers, she said. And this is our way of welcoming Joshua into our family. Besides, hes from here. Hed like it if we brought him flowers that grew in our backyard.

The funny thing was, adopting Joshua Gibbs had been my idea. My teacher, Ms. Hartman, had been the one to mention it. Some local group had decided the Civil War veterans graves were being neglected. So they set up this program where you could adopt a veteran.

As soon as I heard about it, I wanted to do it. A couple of years ago, in fifth grade, wed been studying local history, and Id played an Orange Blossom in our class play. Thats what they were called, Orange Blossoms, the soldiers that came from around here. We live in Orange County, New York. I personally would have called myself something different, maybe the Orange Marauders or the Orange Wildcats, but times were different back in the Civil War, and they went with Orange Blossoms.

In spite of their name, they were really brave soldiers, and they fought all over the place in the Civil War, including Gettysburg. And they deserved to be remembered. So when I heard about this adoption business, I told Mom and Ben.

It costs seventy-five dollars, I said, which was the part I liked the least about it. I have twenty saved if youd be willing to put in the rest.

Thats a wonderful idea, Mom had said. Dont you agree, Ben?

I certainly do, Ben said. Im proud of you, Joey, for wanting to get involved.

So we filled out some papers, and the next thing we knew, we were told the name of our veteran. Joshua Gibbs. Born in 1838. Died in 1870, five years after the Civil War ended. A private first class in the Orange Blossoms.

It was funny. I was the one who told Mom and Ben about it, but they really got into it. We all signed a paper saying we would adopt our veteran. We promised to learn about him, to visit his gravesite and honor his memory. For some reason, that really appealed to them.

I figured it was enough to adopt Joshua Gibbs and think about what things must have been like for him. He wasnt very old in the Civil War, in his early twenties. I liked to imagine what he looked like, Brad Pitt, I thought, or maybe Tom Cruise, and what he must have been like. Very brave. Telling his parents that fighting to end slavery was the right thing to do. I didnt know if he had a girlfriend, but if he did, she was all upset that he was going, but he knew he had to go. Maybe he had a really good friend, like Mike, and the two of them enlisted together.

And I knew Joshua Gibbs fought bravely. I could imagine the battles, smoke from the cannonballs, and the bullets whizzing by. Dead bodies all over the place, the stench of blood and guts making strong men sick. And Joshua Gibbs kept on fighting. He entered the war hardly more than a boy, but by the time the last soldier died, he was a man.

I even had the feeling that when the war ended, he couldnt just come back to Orange County and farm or do whatever it was people did in those days. I kind of imagined hed become a bank robber or held up trains, and thats why he died in 1870. Sometimes I thought maybe hed become a deputy, and he got killed trying to stop Billy the Kid or Jesse James, instead of becoming Billy the Kid or Jesse James himself. But either way, he died in a blaze of bullets. Not that I could really picture that happening anywhere near where I lived. What probably happened was he came back home and died of boredom. But I really preferred the bank robber idea.

I didnt tell Mom and Ben any of that. Just because that was my idea of Joshua Gibbs didnt mean it was theirs. As a matter of fact, Mom was convinced Joshua Gibbs was in love with some beautiful girl, and just when they had a chance at real happiness, he died. And Ben just said people died young in those days, and it was a shame that Joshua Gibbs made it all the way through the Civil War only to come home and die anyway.

Mike thought space aliens had got him. They were around then, Mike said. Nobody knew it because nobody knew what they looked like. They probably kidnapped Joshua Gibbs and beamed him up to their spaceship. I bet theres nobody in that grave.

I wasnt about to dig it up to find out. Mike was supposed to come with us to the cemetery, but he canceled at the last minute. Which was okay by me. Mikes my best friend, but he hadnt adopted Joshua Gibbs.

Do you have the map? Mom asked Ben as we parked the car by the cemetery gate. I want to make sure we find Joshua Gibbs right away.

We will, Ben said. Hes the first Civil War veteran on this map. He shouldnt be too far away.

We walked up a short hill into the cemetery. Id been there, for the funerals of some of my friends grandparents, but Moms family is from somewhere else, so Im not related to anybody dead there. I guess because of that, I could see the cemetery was pretty nice. Lots of grass and trees, and the tombstones were all kind of old and dignified.

Theres a flag, Ben said, pointing to the left. I bet thats him.

We walked over. Sure enough, there was a brand-new marker in the ground: Joshua Gibbs, Dec. 12, 1838Aug. 14, 1870.

Mom put the flowers down gently on his marker. Do you see any other Gibbses here? she asked.

Ben and I looked at the nearby tombstones. This is the Winslow gravesite, Ben said. Hes the only Gibbs here.

I wonder why he was buried here, Mom said. Maybe he was engaged to a Winslow girl.

I think I read they moved some of the Civil War veterans around, after they died, Ben said. They might just have had an empty spot here and dropped him in.

Ben, Mom said, but I kind of liked the idea. I mean, if Joshua Gibbs had been a bank robber or something like that, then it was right he should be buried alone. Or even if he was a deputy. He was his own man. He lived alone, and he fought hard, and he died by his own rules. I saw that in an old western once. Ben likes westerns.