The Longest Night (4)
A tragic prison where all the slaves who had fled to the North were forcibly dragged back and incarcerated.
It was a place that stood as a symbol of the South’s barbarism and inhumanity.
William Tecumseh Sherman, who had begun his assault on the Seuret Rehabilitation Center, could not help but feel bewildered.
As Lincoln had already hinted to him, the plan was to minimize direct attacks and quickly land to neutralize the fortress. After all, John Brown’s agents were supposed to open the gates from the inside.
However, when his fleet approached the rehabilitation center through the dawn mist of the Mississippi River, his fleet staff officer lowered his binoculars and muttered.
“General... something is strange.”
“What do you mean?”
“That... wall, or fence, whatever you’d call it... it’s not in a normal state. It hasn’t been shelled, yet it’s collapsed in several places.”
“What? Did an internal conflict break out?”
Sherman raised his own binoculars. The staff officer was right.
It looked as if a giant had stomped through; the watchtowers were half-tilted, and the main gate was already in tatters.
“Could the spies inside have already done the work?”
“It’s too chaotic for that, sir.”
BOOM!
The cannons on the other side, having spotted them, spat fire, but as expected, the shells flew in completely wrong directions, posing no threat at all.
Sherman, sticking to the plan, ordered a few light guns from the fleet to fire warning shots.
BANG! BANG!
As the shells shattered the collapsed fence of the rehabilitation center, something incomprehensible happened. A few loud reports echoed from within the fortress, and then, everything went silent.
It wasn’t that they had been intimidated into silence by the fleet’s bombardment. They had simply gone quiet.
“......”
“General, could it be a trap?”
“If it were a trap, they wouldn’t have left behind such chaotic signs of destruction.”
Sherman cautiously sent in a landing party. They reached the tattered main gate, but it was already standing wide open.
“...There’s no one here!”
I swear, this was the most absurd siege I had ever seen in my life.
When Sherman personally entered the fortress, he was met with a massive, hollowed-out facility. The barracks that supposedly housed thousands were half-destroyed, the mess hall was overturned, and the training grounds were a complete mess.
“Search it! Find everything they left behind!”
Sherman’s soldiers scoured the empty rehabilitation center. And finally, in a room marked 'Office of the General Manager of Seuret Rehabilitation Center,' they discovered something monumental.
“General! This is it!”
An officer came running, holding dozens of dust-covered file folders.
[Registry of Slaves Repatriated to the North]
[John Brown 'Trojan Horse' Serial Escape Incident - Insider Interrogation Records]
[Security Classification Table for Plantations in 11 Southern States]
These were countless documents proving the South’s barbarism and vicious deeds. Furthermore, a significant number of documents were found indicating that individuals presumed to be John Brown’s group had been spotted in various places for days.
“So John Brown had already led an internal revolt.”
Only then could Sherman understand the whole situation. John Brown’s spies must have incited a riot from within, destroyed the facility, and escaped with all the other slaves. Seuret’s subordinates, who had been fighting fiercely, must have given up and fled when the Union Army arrived on top of that situation.
But this was not a bad thing for them at all. On the contrary, they had secured an easy victory, so they could only be grateful for their hard work.
Sherman climbed atop a watchtower reduced to ashes and shouted to his soldiers.
“We have brought down the Seuret Rehabilitation Center, the South’s ugliest symbol! This is our victory!”
“HURRAH!”
“Now, let us retreat quickly! So that this heroic victory may spread across the Union as soon as possible!”
They gathered the secured classified materials and swiftly returned down the river the way they came. For the soldiers, it was a mission they didn’t understand from start to finish, but their steps were light, carrying the immense haul of classified documents.
That was, until the newspapers from both the North and the South exploded the next day.
Everyone lavished praise on Sherman’s perfect operational ability—attacking and capturing the fortress with such speed—and on Grant’s ability to plan it, noting how they had plundered not only these classified materials but all the 'supplies' of the facility as well.
Plundered supplies? We never did any such thing.
What on earth are those Dixie bastards making such a fuss about, claiming they were robbed? I don’t think John Brown would have even bothered to steal their food.
“No, General Sherman! How on earth could you be this fast? You are truly...”
To the admiration and astonishment showered upon him as he returned in triumph to Washington, he simply answered with a smile, implying that the Southern Army was just too incompetent. In any case, it was a solid fact that the Dixies were a mess.
The fact that the Seuret Rehabilitation Center had been attacked and smashed naturally dealt a massive shock to the entire South. Articles poured out from everywhere, and with the added fact that I had already requested support from the government, immense criticism was leveled against the administration.
Especially the last article maximized the fear of the Southerners. More terrifying than the Union’s invasion was the enemy within, who could stab you in the back at any moment.
“What on earth was the Secretary of War doing!”
“If only that man Breckinridge hadn’t held back Commander Lee...!”
Rumors even leaked out that President Davis and Secretary of War Breckinridge had been shouting and arguing over the responsibility for the fall of the rehabilitation center at the Montgomery temporary capitol. Of course, they would be. It was an open secret that the Davis faction and the Breckinridge faction were clashing sharply in the capital. They were likely putting on a fantasy gala show right now, trying to shift the blame for who had suggested ignoring my warning.
I read all the reports coming in from various places with satisfaction, then turned my gaze to Seuret Cotton’s massive underground warehouse. It was packed to the brim with food and weapons 'plundered by the Union Army' from the rehabilitation center. Just looking at it made me feel full. Burp.
“Master.”
Leo approached, holding a ledger.
“We just received word from Matamoros, Mexico. The first shipment of contraband has arrived safely via the Rio Grande.”
It seems Lincoln is keeping his promise and turning a blind eye as expected. I had Leo bring me a map of the entire South.
“It’s time to start the second phase.”
If 4,000 agents start acting in unison, at least one region can be completely paralyzed. But since there would naturally be constraints next time, I needed to carefully select the first region where I could achieve the greatest effect.
“Contact the rehabilitation center agents who were released in the North. Tell them to assemble in Georgia.”
“Georgia, sir?”
“Yes. Atlanta.”
Naturally, the first target was set. Atlanta. The heart where the South’s railways and logistics converged.
“Incite a massive uprising throughout Georgia. When Sherman comes down to strike that place, you must open the gates from the inside. If Atlanta falls into Northern hands, the South’s ability to wage war is over.”
Leo nodded vigorously but didn’t leave.
“...Master. But if any of the 4,000 people moving are caught... what if, by any chance, they speak your name?”
So that’s what he was worried about. Certainly, a few of them would inevitably mention my name. If I believed that not a single one of 4,000 people would betray me, that wouldn’t be trust—it would be gambling.
But it didn’t really matter.
“Leo. Think about it. Let’s say a terrorist who clearly received orders from John Brown is caught while working. If that guy suddenly shouts, ‘This wasn’t actually John Brown, but an order from the South’s hero, Colonel James Seuret!’, who would believe that?”
“...Ah.”
“The Southerners will be so disgusted, thinking this is a despicable plot by John Brown to slander me.”
The fear and hatred toward John Brown in the South were so strong that no one would believe the words of a terrorist caught while carrying out a plot. I smiled contentedly and put on my uniform as Deputy Commander of the Security Forces.
“Well, I must go to work.”
“Ah. You’re going to carry out your mission.”
“Of course, of course. I have the heavy duty of maintaining public order.”
It goes without saying that the public sentiment in the South was, to put it mildly, not good due to the John Brown situation and the fall of the rehabilitation center. With the atmosphere so grim, the immediate food shortage problem surfaced, and the impatient planters came running to demand countermeasures.
“Colonel Seuret! The price of wheat has tripled overnight!”
“Listen here, Chairman Pher! Is the Congress the place to be arguing about horse racing? If we don’t get food right now, our plantation slaves will starve to death! They might start another riot!”
Oh, how scary. In fact, for the majority of planters in the South, starving slaves were already more terrifying than the Union Army. Rebellions were breaking out everywhere, and it was easy to imagine what would happen if they let the slaves starve in such a situation.
In times like these, a hero must step forward. I stood on the podium with the most sorrowful and anguished expression I could muster.
“Everyone! Please calm down!”
My name still carried weight, so the crowd quieted down.
“I, too, have requested food support from President Davis and Secretary Breckinridge several times, but I only received replies that the front lines were urgent.”
In fact, this was true. Food for the soldiers at the front was already scarce; how could they spare such precious food to feed slaves?
“Then are we all supposed to starve to death!”
“Colonel Seuret! Aren’t you a victim just like us! Do something!”
If they asked me to do something, it was only natural to come up with a method. I sighed as if I had no choice.
“It is a truly difficult situation, but I, James Seuret, know very well how hard it is for you all.”
“Ohhh!”
“Is there, is there any way?”
“I will take the lead.”
“The Union blockade is not yet complete. I will try to open a smuggling route through the Rio Grande in Mexico.”
“Oh! Seuret!”
“Truly the hope of the South!”
I blocked their cheers with my hand. If smuggling were easy, everyone would have done it; why hadn’t anyone in this room tried it? Because it is expensive and dangerous.
“However! Everyone. This is a life-risking endeavor. We must break through the blockade of the Union fleet. I, too, am a head of a household who must feed my family and the hundreds of loyal slaves who followed me here.”
“That’s true... I understand, of course.”
“Since I have to exhaust my own private fortune, I cannot move without corresponding compensation.”
“But we have almost no money on hand right now...”
“I know that, of course. So, for those who wish to receive the smuggled food, please provide your land deeds as collateral.”
“...The land?”
There weren’t many who could easily answer that they would do so, but when you think about it, this was the only way. Cash flow was already blocked, and in a situation where stock trading couldn’t be done properly, what real assets could they offer besides land?
“Of course, I’m not asking you to sell the land. You are merely holding it as collateral, and when the war ends, you can sell the cotton and pay back the food costs.”
Surely I wouldn’t ask them to hand over the land right away? I could see the planters’ expressions brighten in an instant.
'When the war ends, everything will return to normal, and cotton prices will skyrocket, so I can just pay it back then.' As they nodded one by one with this line of thought, the air around us warmed up again. It was normal for them to consider my condition—risking my life to smuggle—as very reasonable.
Did I play tricks in the contract? Of course not. I was a person who was more thorough than anyone else in contractual relationships. If they just paid the money back, I couldn’t take even a single pyeong of their land. That is, if they could grow and sell cotton normally on this land where all the slaves had disappeared after the war ended.
“Colonel Seuret, thank you so much. If the war ends, I will surely repay this kindness!”
“Don’t worry about the food. I will somehow make the smuggling a success.”
Thus, as the Deputy Commander of the Security Forces, I traveled all over the South, soothing the planters who were anxious due to food shortages. They expressed their gratitude and willingly offered their land as collateral to obtain food.
“Hahahaha!”
“With this, we can live without worrying about food for the time being.”
“Seuret! You are truly our hero!”
Seeing that my mood improved the more everyone laughed in relief, it seems I really do love the South after all.