The Southerners

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It was in the early spring of 1861 that Boyd Peyton came home to Mobile after his first cruise as an officer in the United States Navy. Coming home to Mobile meant a very great deal to Boyd. It meant coming back to his father, to his brother, and to his mother, but above all, it meant coming back to Mary Annan. Mary Annan was divided in her affections between Boyd Peyton and Robert Darrow. She liked and admired them both so much that it made her heart bleed to think of giving up either for the sake of the other. But before Boyd had been long in Mobile, a love for a new idol sprang up in Mary's heart, which completely overshadowed her feelings for both men. The name of this new idol was The Southern Cause. After years of misunderstanding and bitterness, the Southern States had at last decided to sever the bonds which held them in the Union. Mary, a Southerner, welcomed the rupture. So too did all the other loyal citizens of Mobile. All, that is, but Boyd Peyton. His love for the South was more than counterbalanced by his love for the country, and his duty as an officer of the United States Navy. At her birthday party, Mary Annan, rising in answer to a toast, bade none to drink to her who did not love her, and forbade any to love her who did not love the South. Boyd drank the toast. After the dinner, Mary, believing that Boyd would enlist in the Southern Cause, promised to marry him. That night, the young officer suffered tortures of indecision. On the one side was Mary, on the other nothing but that ugly word, Duty. If he chose that, he would lose with Mary the love and respect of family and friends, everything that seemed desirable. But in the face of all temptation, when Boyd arose the next morning, he was firmly resolved to follow the bitter road of duty and honor. When the local company of militia came to the house before breakfast, and announced to Boyd that they had elected him their captain, he told them that he was, and always would be, loyal to the government to which he had sworn allegiance. In the face of the horrified remonstrance of his family and Mary, Boyd remained steadfast in his decision. So, even while he was being cast forth from his father's house, Mary threw herself into Darrow' s arms, and promised to marry him when he returned from the war. But Mary regretted her decision, for in the days that followed, love for Boyd grew and grew in her heart. At last, when she felt that she could no longer honorably keep silence, she wrote to Darrow, breaking their engagement. Darrow got Mary's letter on the eve of the battle of Chickamauga. He opened it smiling, read it and went forth to die like the brave man and honest gentleman he was. His heart was already dead before the kindly bullet found him. As the cruel years dragged on, Mary learned to repent bitterly of her girlish desire for war and its attendant deeds of glory and bravery. Besides Darrow, her father had fallen fighting for the Cause, and Beverly, her young brother, the last of the Annan line, was stationed in Fort Morgan, in imminent peril from the guns of the Union fleet which was threatening the Confederate forts and fleet in Mobile Bay. In the terrible battle which resulted from Farragut's successful attempt to pass the forts and attack the Confederate fleet, Beverly Annan was killed. Boyd Peyton, on Farragut's flagship, the "Hartford," performed a miracle of valor in saving men from the dynamited "Tecumseh" beneath the guns of the fort and the eyes of his father, who commanded it. Desperately wounded by a shell, Peyton was removed to shore, and nursed back to health and strength by Mary Annan. Through her intercession, the outcast was taken back into the family that had disowned him. Then peace came upon the sorely-stricken land, and a far greater peace to the hearts of Mary and Boyd.