Post 31 - Dead eye Samantha

Author's Note; For any of you readers who came into this story late, Dead eye Sam is my current book I am writing. Samantha is a spin-off character from of my last book, Forever Cry. It is set during The Reconstruction. Forever Cry is a mixture of fiction and non fiction, inspired by the early life of my grandmother, Martha Jane "Tennessee" Tucker. We are approaching the 100 page mark. Lead in's to all previous posts of Dead eye Sam can be found on my Twitter wall page. Thanks for reading!
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     She must go to Little Rock, but in a round-about way so she could not be followed.

     At daylight the next morning, she slipped a note under the office door at Wilson’s Family Restaurant. She thanked the Wilson’s, told them she loved them. Then she explained she had to leave Nashville. She left no forwarding address and mentioned no destination. She could not keep from crying, all the way back to her room. Then she settled her account. She once more put on her brown wig. She did not plan to wear it all her life, but she could wear it long enough to get out of Nashville unnoticed. At nine o’clock, she boarded the train to St. Louis. After losing herself in that big city, she boarded a train and traveled in a round-bout sort of way to Madison, Arkansas.  In the late 1860's, the tracks westward ended at that point, at the St. Francis River. They picked up again at DeVall’s Bluff, then continued on to Little Rock. The section in between included crossing three good-sized rivers. The St. Francis, the Cache, and the White. It was not completed until up in the 1870’s. This very difficult stretch of track was completed by RC Brinkley, whom Brinkley, Arkansas is now named after.

      She was convinced nobody could ever follow her. She had changed her name three times during her travels.

     Her wig was gone. Now she had short black hair. That was not hard. As early as 100 AD, Galen, the Roman doctor, had a formula for black hair. Even as far back as 3400 BC, women changed their hair color to black. During Samantha’s time, women were bleaching their hair with hydrogen peroxide, ushering in many years of broken strands and burned scalps.

     Samantha was a skilled waitress. She could find a job here. She would build a life. She was less that one hundred miles from Dover. When the time was right, she would find Tenny.

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     During The Reconstruction, the Governor of Alabama was a Northern Republican, as was the case with most all the Confederate states. Initially, the Governor really had almost no military power. As time went on, it was decided to form a Militia to be at his disposal. This would consist of Southern Blacks and Whites alike to handle civil disturbances. It was attractive to freed Blacks, because so many had no way to feed their family. And the pay, similar to a regular soldier, was attractive.

     Southern Whites were not so anxious to join. They did not take well to the idea of maybe having to take orders from Black officers. So, many units were almost totally black. Eventually, all these militias were referred to as Negro Militias, even if only a single Black was involved.

     The Governor had bad memories of being forced to listen to Slim’s threat against his family, and being forced to give Samantha a pardon.

     Once the Governor had the power of the Negro Militia behind him, he was determined to settle the score with the Dudley Clan. Wiping out the Dudley Clan was needed and well deserved, most people knew by this time. The days of the violently horrible Dudley Clan in Taladega County were numbered. Slim, with informers here and there, knew this. He called the Clan together for a very special meeting.