The Reaper of Washington County

Major Lancaster was a captain in Grant’s army when he was in the Battle of Cold Harbor. There, he was wounded and unable to lead his troops to victory. It became the only serious conflict the General lost during the Civil War. Some say Grant would have won that battle, too, if not for a sniper’s musket ball that ripped through the captain’s shoulder. Towards the end of the War, he was promoted to Major, and no one deserved it more. He was, of course, responsible for so much death on the battlefield. But it was Grant who received all the accolades for so many battles won. The North would later go on to victory, yet the Major had only nightmares of what he had done. Like many soldiers in the War, he sadly faded into obscurity. That is until a young Marshal entered his life.

“You can yell all you want, all right! There’s nothing you can say to get us to cut up any vampires. There’s a limit to what we will do. Now, I told these men we would help with the digging, and that is it.” At that moment, the four men turned towards their horses.

“Now, hold on, men,” the Major said. “You can do the digging if that is all you want. I’ll have the rest taken care of if need be. There are three bodies in all. Only two are buried. One is just sitting in a vault, for Christ’s sake. I’m going to pay you to dig up all three. I would not want you men to think I don’t appreciate you all.”

The Major was seen as stern, aged from the War Between the States. His grey beard shadowed his face with the blackest of eyes. His hair was never a concern to him. These men knew not to run. There was no way these swamp Yankees could be forgiven for this. Crossing the Major at that point would be their end; either they did the digging or would never be heard from again. “Now, I would have our undertaker take care of this. But he is sick with the rest of them.”

The four men began to look at each other. “We must get paid when the job is done, Major.”

“You’re damn right you’ll get paid—every penny of it. You can bed down in the bblacksmith’sbarn tonight. I’ll give you some money now to take in a bit of liquor. I’ll have some grub sent down to you men later.