"Welcome to the United States army, captain foster." "I had the tailor cut it up." "My nephew stood in for the measuring." "Should be close enough, I expect." "I have not yet received my exam results, sir." "Ah, but I have." "You passed." "Don't look so perplexed." "I'm pleased I made it through." "Made it through?" "You excelled." "Entering at the rank of captain." "No more hale lording it over you." "Drink?" "Uh, early for me, sir." "Yes." "Yes, of course." "Good... good man." "I wonder, major, if..." "Hmm?" "There might be an available room for me here at mansion house." "Mrs. foster... she's gone off to California ahead of me." "She and I have agreed that..." "No, no, no, no." "Certainly, certainly." "Um, I'm sure Mrs. Brannan can find something." "Thank you, sir." "Miss Phinney." "Oh, god." "Countess." "What can I do for you?" "It has come to my attention that the men are suffering deficiencies in their daily dietary intake." "What would you have me do?" "Perhaps a discussion with Mr. Bullen and the cook to help them understand the importance of fresh meals delivered promptly." "Well, why not speak to the head nurse?" "I'm the head nurse, sir." "Yes, of course." "Heavy hangs the head that wears the crown..." "And all that." "I am sure that you can bend those culinary ruffians to your will." "Oh." "Pardon me, miss Hastings." "You've received your results, I take it." "Ah." "You'll look dashing in that." "Well, I've never been one for pomp." "Who doesn't love a man in uniform?" "Ah, yes." "Well..." "I must find matron Brannan." "Oh, my, sir." "How forward." "Oh, why, thank you." "You are a gentleman." "What do you think you're doing?" "Going to visit tom." "He's still in no condition." "I told you..." "When the time is right." "I have waited long enough." "The battlefield is hard on a boy, Alice." "Tom's been through an ordeal." "That's why I must remind him of all he's missed..." "All that awaits him now that he is home." "He's changed, Alice." "Do you understand?" "He's different." "Of course he's different." "He's a man now." "He's a hero." "Mm." "I baked these myself." "True." "Sister took no counsel from me." "And lord help him if he take a bite out of that." "Hero or not, no tooth is gonna survive it." "I'd better run over there myself." "Oh." "Oh, bad teeth, bad knees, bad heart." "Never get old, dearie." "I understand how you feel, matron." "I'll be 20 next month." "Oh." "Huh." "I will not move until I've spoken to Dr. foster." "Oh, what's all this now?" "You will return this man to the Wolfe street hospital." "We are full up on rebel patients now." "Who are you?" "Get me Dr. foster." "Dr. foster is unavailable." "Then we will stand here until he becomes available." "Won't we, miles?" "Yes, ma'am." "Tom?" "Tom." "Oh." "I'm here." "Oh." "I knew you'd come back, tom." "I knew it." "It's like a fairy tale." "The hero back from the war taking his Princess in his arms." "It'll be perfect, tom, just perfect." "Tom?" "It's me." "It's Alice." "Who..." "Who told you I was here?" "I found your haversack." "Look, look, I brought..." "I brought you some treats." "Fruit." "Your favorite corn bread." "You don't belong here." "Go!" "You..." "Don't..." "Belong here." "You offered once to help." "I was rash to say no." "Mrs. foster:" "You, boy." "Yes, ma'am?" "Take my miles to the laundry." "He's to wash my son's clothes." "Well, run along now." "Don't lollygag." "Come on." "Captain brookhurst:" "You were in the wrong, sir." "Under the fugitive slave act, it was correct to return the contraband to its owner." "My understanding is that your congress recently passed an article of war, signed by Lincoln, which says that there's..." "There is no argument here." "Your complaint has focused some attention on your business dealings with the union administration." "Captain Brookhurst:" "And on your intransigence about signing the oath of allegiance." "But we..." "We discussed this." "We have an agreement." "From captain Harkins." "Sign it." "Or we will shut down your factory." "And remove you from your house." "Which we should have done in the first place." "We thank you, sir..." "And look forward to your acquiescence." "Good day, ma'am." "We can't go on like this, James." "The war will be over by Christmas." "James, I received a letter from my brother in Texas." "He says there's plenty of room for us whenever we decide to leave." "He says they want to help us." "Never get old, boys." "Good morning, sir." "Good morning." "Papers?" "Oh, easy." "I'm here to work." "Now, if... if you don't have papers, you need someone to vouch for you." "Vouch for me?" "Why, I was sent here by Dr. granville." "He said you had men that needed dental care." "10 cents a tooth." "Dental care?" "Who are you, Sonny?" "Billy Griffin, assistant dentist." "Good." "Right this way, Mr. Griffin." "The lady is most insistent." "What's so damned important?" "I was in the middle of..." "Mother." "It's Ezra." "He was at McDowell with the 21st Virginia." "Ez?" "Jed?" "Am I home?" "They removed a musket ball in the field." "They brought him to Wolfe street." "Those butchers wanted to amputate." "We couldn't have that, could we?" "So I brought him here to you." "I told you to keep your head down, didn't I?" "You never said anything about my leg." "You always got to go against your big brother, don't you?" "I go north, you go south." "You get shot, I got to fix you." "Stop talking and fix me then." "Bring him inside." "We have no bed for him." "This rebel will be sent directly back to Wolfe street hospital, where they can cut off whatever part of him they'd like." "This rebel is my brother." "Why does that not surprise me?" "I'll look after him myself." "He'll be no concern of yours." "This is a military hospital." "You are a civilian contract surgeon..." "Dr. hale." "What?" "Dr. foster has just passed his military surgeon's exam." "You... you what?" "Call me captain." "It's easier." "Bring him in." "Hastings!" "Any word, sir?" "From Roanoke island?" "You said you knew a man going down there." "He'd ask..." "Ah, yes, yes." "Come by later." "I will let you know." "Beat the Dutch, boy." "You extirpate someone for those duds?" "This one needs to do some laundry." "Says who?" "His master's inside, Mr. Bullen." "Wounded in battle." "Set them there." "I'll get to them." "Miss foster don't like no one touch the clothes but one of the family." "And that's you?" "One of the family?" "Yes, ma'am." "You can start over there." "Whoa, whoa." "You all right?" "I-i-i know." "I-i ain't been sleeping much." "Hospital gangrene." "What does that mean?" "You see how much bigger the wound has gotten?" "It spreads quickly..." "Up to 1/2 inch an hour." "Oh." "He's burning up." "The doctors at Wolfe street weren't wrong, mother." "Yes, they were." "Accepted treatment dictates..." "This leg is staying where god put it." "There's a risk he might develop pyemia..." "Blood poisoning." "You will fix him." "Most men die from that." "You will keep him whole." "We have no choice." "There's always a choice..." "Who to fight for, who to save." "Our choices define us." "Choose to save your brother's leg." "You owe him that much." "Mother." "Everything's fine, Ezra." "Take if off, Jed." "Do it quick." "Dentist!" "Dentist!" "Anyone needs a dentist, line up on the stairs." "Come on." "Dentist, dentist." "Anyone needs a dentist, line up on the stairs." "Sure am glad to see you, sir." "My tooth hurts something fierce." "Well, you've come to the right fella." "Basins..." "Utensils..." "Pots." "And I'll give you a little money if you can go find some vegetables in town." "Yeah." "And we'll need a space, as well." "That won't be noticed by Bullen?" "Precisely." "Where we can do some cooking for the boys." "Yeah." "Miss Phinney." "Miss green." "My ward was running short on some staples." "So you're pilfering from mine?" "I'm doing my duty for the boys." "And which boys are those?" "Oh, dear." "This old Chestnut." "Resources must be doled out based on priority." "As the head nurse, I shall determine the priority." "Do you see that boy?" "Over there?" "I'll be sure to tell Dr. foster that the head nurse has determined his brother is not a priority." "Well." "Let's put these back." "And those." "Leave some for the rebs, shall we?" "You got any paraffin, miss?" "I got a spot won't come out." "Ask that man over there." "His name's Mr. Bullen." "He your master?" "No, I ain't got no master." "I'm free." "Were you born free or fugitive free?" "They call us contrabands 'cause we're spoils of war." "You worry they gonna find you and bring you back where you came from?" "Do you go to church?" "Yes, miss." "Well, you know the day of judgment's coming." "And the lord see us for who we are and what we done." "Mm." "I ain't done much." "I done things I'd rather he not know about." "But I was born to the whip and a chain." "When I saw the chance to run, I took it." "Now, this life here... it ain't easy..." "But it's mine." "And no one can steal it from me." "Well, they always come looking." "No, war's changing that." "Not in Maryland." "Well, we ain't in Maryland." "This here free territory." "A new law got made up in Washington city, say runaways can't be got back by their masters." "Don't you get it, boy?" "You walk out that gate there, you free." "Miss foster, she been good to me." "If you want to be free, you got to take it." "I'll be asking Mr. Bullen for that paraffin." "Yes, ma'am." "This is your brother?" "That he is." "Well..." "I'm sorry for your troubles." "He's..." "He'll be fine." "Have you done an amputation before?" "There wasn't much need for it in my Baltimore practice." "All of the orderlies are engaged." "You will require assistance." "I had the steadiest hands in my class at the academy." "The best vision, too." "Everyone said so." "My grandfather was a general in the war of 1812." "Did you know that?" "My father was with tripler in Panama." "I was practically born in a uniform." "I went to Florida for the second Seminole war." "Then two years in Mexico in the name of manifest destiny." "Destiny to do what?" "Expand the slave-owning territories." "Oh, that's what that war was about." "And look where it got us." "What is your point, dear?" "I don't question the army." "I do as I'm told." "I go where I'm sent." "Always have, always will." "I am a good soldier in every sense." "Yes, you are." "So why is the army betraying me now?" "Byron." "They betray us both of us when they give that rogue captain's bars, when they bring in a nurse to whom you must submit." "We take our vows of loyalty to god and nation." "But where is the loyalty to us?" "Byron, you are working yourself into a fit." "Listen..." "They're like a wolf in the forest." "We must be docile and meek." "Make them our friends." "And then, it will be so much easier to sneak up in the night when the wolf is asleep and put a bullet in his head." "I see the way you look at him." "Shh." "He is no rival to you, not in the hospital and not here." "Of course not." "Of course." "It throbs." "Every footstep feels like a stab to the gums." "Where's your bivouac?" "Is it, uh, upstairs?" "Not a chance." "It's down there." "Crowd us in 10 to a room unless you got chicken guts on your shoulders." "Any of them around?" "They got some muckety-muck upstairs." "Guards on his door." "Stomping on the floorboards all hours." "What's wrong with him?" "Dysentery, I hear." "Are you gonna pull it?" "No, you're fine." "Just drink some water." "Water?" "That's it?" "It hurts like sin." "Nothing to worry about, my friend." "It's just a little toothache." "Matron, hey." "I could use your aid." "I need to..." "No, I'm here as a patient." "Well, you know, I'm meant to see the men." "You know who pays for your work here?" "You know who holds the purse strings?" "Well, I've got a molar smarting something ferocious." "Look at that." "Look, tom, I know this place is hard." "No one chooses to be here." "But..." "You made it back." "Not everyone does." "You were out there in the thick of it, but you got home." "Doesn't feel like home." "Let's go somewhere quieter where we can talk." "Uh, i-i needs some soap." "Apothecary's out of stock." "I ain't the quartermaster." "I got work to do." "I got work, too." "And to do it, I need some soap." "What the hell are you two yammering about?" "Uh, I needs soap, sir." "Got no soap, got no clean clothes." "Got no clean clothes, I got a world of trouble." "God almighty, if soap will shut your yap, then get some." "Thank you, sir." "Go on now." "Get back to your master." "I'll put it on his account." "I don't got no master no more." "I got an employer." "You think so?" "Leave that soap here and see if he beats you any less." "Employer?" "That's right." "I'm free now." "And he ain't never beat me." "Do he pay you for your work?" "That ain't freedom." "I got as good as you got." "Contrabands coming up north, living in filth, dying in the street." "That the freedom you talking about, you can have it." "We all do what we got to do." "I know what you're up to." "You and that Bullen." "Think that's freedom?" "Giving yourself to some white man, and for what?" "Pennies on the dollar." "What I do and why I do it?" "You don't know nothing about me." "Not one goddamn thing." "Oh." "Oh." "How far along is you?" "Is it his." "Ah." "Oh, my damn Irish potato teeth." "Looks right as rain to me." "Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known." "Man:" "Right around the corner." "Sorry?" "Luke 12:2." "Means my tooth hurts like the devil himself is poking it, whether you can see it or not." "Pull it." "Uh..." "Well, you are a dentist, aren't you?" "What do you mean, ma'am?" "Well, you don't seem like no dentist." "I am, in fact, the assistant to the dentist." "And as teeth-pulling is a highly advanced procedure..." "Ah, dentist, assistant, whatever you be, you will pull it, son, and you will pull it now." "Or, by god, I will have you thrown in that hole we keep under this hospital for the diseased and deserters." "Ah." "All right." "This one here?" "Uh-huh." "One..." "Ah." "Two..." "Ah!" "Three!" "He'll come through this?" "We'll do our best, mother." "Make sure, Jed." "I want to bring my son home." "Look, I must tell you, there will be a period of convalescence at another union hospital." "He'll heal faster with me in your old room." "You don't seem to understand." "Do you know the only good thing about your father not being alive?" "He doesn't have to suffer the disappointment of watching you lose your way." "Mother." "Try to redeem yourself just a little." "We'll, uh..." "We'll make the first cut here, drawing up towards the patella." "That time you fell through the ice, wasn't I there to pull you out, ez?" "Yeah?" "Well, I'm gonna do it again." "Prepare the chloroform." "You've administered chloroform?" "Yes, under supervision." "Good." "Put him under." "Nurses aren't allowed to..." "I'll be right back." "I should return to the ward." "Hold his head, please." "Just breathe, private." "You too, miss green." "Henry:" "You keep thinking about a thing too much the thing becomes you... you become the thing." "Gets to be a mighty steep hill." "When I was 16, I got into a fight." "It was a small thing." "Boy insulted my sister, and I wanted to hurt him..." "Make him pay for the slight on my family." "For a moment, I was lost." "I was blind with rage as I hit him again and again." "That boy was never the same after that." "He slurred his words, he couldn't remember things." "Two years later, one wintry night, he froze to death 50 feet from his home." "I killed that boy as surely as if I had shot him in the heart." "Sometimes it's the soul that's wounded." "And we can do little about that." "Only wait and pray and..." "And hope that god can help us... because he is there..." "And he is listening." "You believe that, don't you?" "Miss Phinney." "The patient is ready." "Good." ""Divide periosteum." "Insert catlin between the bones."" ""Fibula should be divided before tibia begins to yield." "Dissect interosseous membrane."" "Dissect interosseous membrane." "I'll read." "You cut." ""Commence the incision with the heel of the knife."" "Miss green." "Hey!" "Dagnabbit!" "You come back here!" "You got to catch us first, old man!" "You come back here with that apple!" "Who are those boys?" "Slaves who ran to freedom." "Free to go wild?" "Free to steal?" "Man, that freedom don't look so good." "Here." "You like the life you have?" "I've got clothes, food, and church on Sundays." "Yeah, the fosters treat me right." "Treat you right, huh?" "They own you..." "Like a cow or a horse or a wagon." "No, sir." "Miss foster love me." "That ain't love, boy." "Your mistress wants you upstairs." "Mary: "The skin is raised from the first layer of muscles by dissection and is drawn upwards like the cuff of a coat."" ""The first layer of muscles is divided at the margin of the retracted integument."" ""Three arteries..." "Anterior tibial, posterior tibial, the peroneal."" ""Once the artery is severed, it must be ligated with silk prior to amputation of the lower extremity." "The muscles are raised with the knife and drawn still further upwards."" "Miss foster?" "Sing to me." "Something pretty." "Hold his leg so it won't splinter." "Both of us." "You can put it down." "Miss green..." "Prepare a room in the ward for private foster." "Loosen the tourniquet..." "Slowly." "You've done it." "Then the river was so big." "Washington city across the way." "Ships coming in the port from all over the world." "We used to play on the docks then," "Frank Stringfellow and Jimmy Green and me." "Talked about all the places we gonna visit..." "London, Timbuktu, Constantinople." "But we never left Virginia." "Not for a single solitary day." "Just finishing up with the boys." "How are you feeling?" "Oh, paining me for weeks, me tooth." "I was afeard it'd be the death of me." "Here." "You did me a kindness." "Boiled these sweets meself." "Thank you, ma'am." "Now, i-i must be heading upstairs to the officers' rooms." "Would you be so kind?" "Oh, certainly." "Oh, matron, I need you to sign this." "Oh." "Mm." "Thank you, nurse Mary..." "For making me stay." "Woman:" "Here, have some more water." "Emma." "Will you ask Alice..." "Ask her..." "To bring me berries again?" "You use this like you would fleawort." "There a lot of things wrong with me, but fleas ain't one of them." "Well, now, if you crush this up around your bed, it do get rid of fleas, and the stems in your pocket make the mosquitoes buzz right away." "But this..." "Is pennyroyal." "You make a tea out of it." "Three cups a day, and all your pests should be taken care of." "That's what you want, ain't it?" "To be free of it?" "My auntie showed us when I was little in Carolina." "She gave it to all the girls what got dragged up to the mansion." "It work?" "I ain't never knowed it not to." "Much obliged." "And about earlier..." "I ain't mean nothing by it." "I just think a person who free should get paid for their work." "Mm-hmm." "I'm off to see the Hendersons." "They buried George this morning." "Buried?" "I thought they'd been prevented from the cemetery." "Mr. Henderson signed the oath." "Maybe it's the sensible thing." "Better than running to Texas, leaving everything behind." "Texas." "Have the ladies got to you?" "We're collaborating, aren't we?" "We're in business with them." "Why not just sign the damn paper?" "Father, you're not talking sense." "They will take everything we have." "We only need to hold out a few more months." "This will be over by then for sure." "Till then..." "We use the business against them..." "As a means of subversion." "I've told you, I know men fighting a secret war." "Frank stringfellow's with them." "I've talked to one of them." "We'll not traffic with extremists." "You won't let me fight as a soldier, so I urge you to let me fight some other way." "How else can we call ourselves men?" "Send the Hendersons my condolences." "Mr. green?" "Yes, Belinda?" "I been working for you for a long time now." "Been with miss Jane since she were a little girl and raised them young ones like they was my own." "And we are appreciative of your service." "I'm sure you know that." "I is a servant now, yes?" "Yes, of course, though I don't see..." "Then I should get paid." "Paid?" "I is free." "Free folk get wages." "My friend Annabelle up the road get $1.50 every week from Mr. Kirkpatrick, and that would do me, as well." "So I be expecting $3 every other Friday." "Thank you, sir." "So, you're here to look at the colonel's teeth?" "Well, that's what the old sawbones said." "Well, you got any paperwork?" "Matron signed it." "Sir." "Well, hello, there." "Wilkins, is that you?" "It's me, sir." "Anything you need." "I don't know you." "Guar..." "You just relax." "Your war's over." "You're going home." "That's it." "Just relax." "Relax." "Good riddance." "The colonel's teeth are fine." "I don't know why the doc was so het up." "Now, he's fast asleep now, so shh." "He's very tired." "Needs his rest, mm?" "This should work well." "Just a few steps from the ward." "Out of sight of Bullen..." "And Melcher?" "Miss Hastings." "I-i..." "I didn't..." "I mean, I didn't realize..." "Are you trying to prepare meals apart from the kitchen?" "The men's dietary needs are not being met." "So I asked myself, "what would miss nightingale do?"" "And I resolved to take initiative." "Well, you might have asked me what she would do..." "As surely I would know." "Silly of me." "What would she do?" "She'd take the initiative and look after her men." "Just as you are." "So we are in concert, then." "Of course." "After all, we are on the same side, are we not?" "Is it done?" "Yes." "You'll need to keep it cleaned, make sure there's no bleeding." "Barring that, you should be fine." "When can he go home?" "Mother, you didn't listen before." "It's a simple question." "I can't." "He's a prisoner of war now." "As soon as he's well enough, they'll ship him off." "Fort McHenry, I reckon." "What?" "No." "But they're starting to do prisoner exchanges, so before long, maybe you'll be back with your side." "You cut off his leg, and now you're sending him to prison?" "Mother, please." "What made you become so disloyal to this family?" "I saved his life, didn't I?" "!" "You all right, miss foster?" "You're a good boy." "You know that?" "You know your place, and you appreciate it." "Isn't that so?" "Miles, run down and fetch Ezra's laundry, and we'll be on our way." "I apologize." "But what I'm doing here, it's not a bad thing." "I heal people." "I'm a doctor, mother." "A Yankee doctor." "A traitor." "I believe in preserving the union." "That makes me a patriot." "Is that what you call it?" "The man who sent his brother to prison." "What did you think would happen?" "That you would save him." "I did." "We all did." "Those nurses, that medicine, this Yankee hospital, that's what saved him." "Yes, only to ship him off with one leg to a Yankee jail." "You are not fair to me." "No." "No one's fair to you." "Eliza's gone off west without you." "She's a bad wife." "Ezra fought for the other side." "He's a bad brother." "I never said he..." "And I'm a bad mother for what?" "Not shucking you on the chin and telling you how proud I am?" "This is not the man we raised you to be." "Your father would be destroyed to see it." "I need to arrange a carriage." "I'll be in my room if I'm needed." "Jimmy." "What's the matter?" "I rode all the way out to the Henderson place." "George and me, we used to do magic tricks on the porch." "The place was burning when I got there." "I reckon someone found out his father signed the paper." "Are they dead?" "The family?" "I saw them weeping by the fire..." "Afraid their own neighbors would kill them." "Look at what these blue devils are doing to us." "Dr. foster." "Oops." "I bet this doesn't look good." "Please get up." "Please." "Oh." "Oh." "Oh." "Ah." "No." "No, this is not you." "This is the morphine." "Morphine?" "What morphine?" "You are not fit, sir." "You've been talking to my mother." "You are not fit to be treating patients." "You cannot continue going to such lengths to..." "Preserve your equanimity." "Ooh." "Ooh, I like how you put that." "Is that what I'm doing?" "Come..." "And give us another kiss." "Come." "This is not you." "Oh, but..." "This is not you." "Stop it." "Stop that!" "You see this?" "It wasn't like this in the beginning." "The beginning?" "In France." "Studying the efficacy of drugs." "Hypodermics." "It started as an experiment?" "Yes." "But then research became comfort, and..." "Comfort became... indispensable." "You can stop." "You must stop." "I've tried." "It's misery." "If you've become unmoored, you must anchor yourself." "If you don't..." "Well, I can't remain silent if you continue to work on these men in this condition." "Are you threatening me?" "I'm telling you..." "I can help you stop if you want it." "But you must want it." "You must choose." "I will fetch you some water and comforts for this room." "Whoa, hold up!" "Hey, there, fancy man." "Got anything to eat?" "Well, come with us, then." "We always find something." "Suit yourself." "You want it, you got to take it." "You certain about that?" "Frank!" "Also known as captain frank stringfellow, 4th Virginia cavalry." "But let's keep that between us for now." "I was so worried about you." "You know me, ems." "I always get by."