Chrisy58’s Weblog

The word for this week is colorful so that should be fun.  I was thinking of writing a short story about someone I used to know and considered a friend.  Who knows what I will come up with?

I could call the main character Wade.  Instead of using the real name the person would be the inspiration of this story I will think about it, but at least I have the main character of my story. 

I am actually thinking of turning this into a novel.  So I am only going to post the short story.

Third draft:

Confederate Rose

By Christine Cosser

Wade Le Blanc was a very interesting colorful man.  He grew up in New Orleans, LA.  He spent most the time before the War fishing on the bayou with his dogs Beau and Rebel.  His plantation called Live Oak Plantation was South of the city.  It was very beautiful with the live oak trees hanging with Spanish Moss.  It was very peaceful and Wade lived there with his dogs. Every place that Wade went his dogs were always with him too.  They were as colorful as their master and knew the bayous almost as well as Wade did.

Like most Southern gentlemen Wade hoped that the North would let the South succeed from the Union, but he was willing to go to war to keep the way of life that made the South the colorful place it was with all its colorful smells and sights that made the South like no other place on earth.  The sound of slaves in the cotton fields singing as they work.  There was no place like the South Wade thought and he felt very strongly that the South should be free from the dictates of the North.

He bragged to his best friend George that if the Confederacy did go to war that the war would be over in less than a month.  They would go and beat the Yankees and teach those Yankees a lesson that they would never forget.  Wade was a little bit of a braggart, but that was part of his colorful Southern charm. South Carolina has just succeeded from the Union Wade told his friend George and we must defend the honor of the South if Lincoln won’t let us go peacefully.

Sarah Adams was a Boston girl.  She was born and grew up on the South Shore.  Her home was Marshfield, MA.  She had dark hair and dark eyes and lots of freckles in her youth.  She was the total opposite of Wade in that while Wade felt the South was morally right to succeed from the North because it had the right to live as they had always lived and that no one should tell the South that holding slaves was wrong.  Sarah on the other hand had worked with the underground railroad to help the slaves who tried to flee the their masters in the South to make it to freedom in the North.  She felt it was her moral duty to fight slavery and to keep the nation united so she strongly support President Lincoln.

Because she felt so strongly about freedom for all people she decided that she must become a spy to help the Union win the war.  Sarah decided that she would offer her services to the government and use her charm and beauty to get the information needed; so that the Union army could start to change the direction of the this war so that the Yankee side would win.  So she went to Washington to meet the people she would be working with.  After her training she moved to New Orleans and took the name Sarah La Rose.  Her code name was Confederate Rose. 

It didn’t take Sarah long to pick up the Southern Accent so that she could pass as a southern belle.  The first time Wade saw Sarah was at a dance while he was home from the war front on leave over Christmas.  He asked around to find out who she was.  He was told she had moved here from Savannah and had bought the old Riverfront Plantation that used to belong to the Burns family.  Sarah gave her plantation that nave River Rose Plantation.

On the night Wade met Sarah she was wearing a blue Velvet dress with a matching cape.  She wore pearl pins in her hair and a pearl necklace.  Sarah was a wonderful dancer and all the eyes of the men in the room were on her. Wade looked handsome in his uniform of Grey.  As an officer he was used to getting his own way.  I think he fell in love with Sarah the first moment his eyes feel upon her.  Sarah on the other hand wasn’t interesting in finding love, but just thinking about the work she must do to get the information she needed to pass on to the Union Army so that they could use the information to their advantage.  She knew that she would have to play the game of love with Wade to make him fall in love and tell her the information.  Wade was a proud man and he believed very strongly in the Cause.  She knew that Wade wouldn’t think twice about killing her if he found out the truth, that instead of the beautiful Southern belle from Savannah, GA that she was a Yankee Spy from Boston.

Wade looked over at Sarah and she smiled.  He decided that he would ask her to dance.  “Would you like to dance with me”, Wade asked Sarah.  ” I would love too”, Sarah answered.  Wade walked Sarah out to the dance floor and once he held her in his arms he knew that he had strong feelings for her and that he wanted to get to know her better.  Sarah knew that Wade could be charming in that colorful Southern way, but she also knew that inside he also believed in the Southern Cause with his whole heart and soul and if he found out that she was a Yankee Spy he would kill her in an instant.

I will continue to work on it.  Anyway, at least I have started it and we will see how it progresses.  I will work on it later.  I would love to hear if you think the story has merit for me to try and expand the story and put into a novel. I have always loved historical fiction and I think it would be great fun to base a book on a Yankee women spy during the Civil War.