Chapter 10 "Blood on the Prairie - A Novel of the Sioux Uprising" (conclusion)

 Background: Chief Scout Toby Ryker is visiting the sick and wounded soldiers from the Dakota Conflict and the larger Civil War hospitalized at Fort Snelling. He meets a mortally wounded young soldier named Edwin Balch from Glencoe, Minnesota, and accompanies him on his last journey home. We call him Eddy and have him as an amputee with gangrene. Balch is cited on page 333 of Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-1865 published in 1890 by the Pioneer Press Company, St Paul, Minnesota. The cite states: Enlisted Men Balch, Edwin, age 20, mustered in June 13, '62, mustered out (blank) Died November 27, '62 at Glencoe, Minn. This is our literary tribute to Edwin Balch.

The next morning after Ryker bid the family farewell, he untied Wino from the rear of the ambulance. He mounted up and neck-reined the big gelding back toward the Minnesota River, which would eventually take him to Mankato. The sky was clear blue and the weather was mild even though it was November. He looked over the fields as he rode along, noticing the corn now in shocks, the stalks now dried and brown, and the words of Eddy’s song came back to him:

For I would reap the yellow grain

                   And bind it in the sheaves

                   Then die when autumn winds complain

                   Among the blighted leaves

He reined Wino to a halt and sat there a moment resting his hands on the saddle pommel. He felt the old weariness coming back, the weariness of war, and the weariness of loss of life, and of burials, and the severing of friendships. It bothered him, particularly since he was still on furlough and knew he still had many tough days of duty to face. Glancing toward the sun, he said, “Pappy, what’re these times all about? What’s the wisdom to all this? I have half a notion to desert this war and go somewheres where there are but few people and live out the rest of my life there.” Of course, he knew he would never do that, but it felt kind of good to say it anyway. Clucking to Wino, he spurred the gelding gently and trotted off toward Mankato.

Private Edwin Balch died on the twenty-seventh of November, 1862, on the family farm outside of Glencoe, Minnesota. His wife, Becky, never remarried, for she never found another man she loved as much as Eddy. Before he died, he and Becky played several games of cribbage in their bedchamber. He allowed her to win most of them. Sixty-five years later, Becky joined Eddy under the sod in the windrow behind the house, never to be parted from him again. (End of chapter 10, perhaps the most poignant chapter in the book, "Blood on the Prairie - A Novel of the Sioux Uprising.")

Read the entire story of the Dakota Conflict of 1862 in the format of your choice at the links below, as the 150th anniversary of the Dakota Conflict continues. Please note the digital versions will soon be removed from Nook and Google Books, allowing the Amazon Sesquicentennial Edition to qualify for Kindle Select.

 

Amazon Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O2AMX2