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"Am I dead?" I said.
"You don't look it to me."
"You said you're John Bell Hood."
"That's correct."
His face was narrow, his cheeks hollow, his skin grained with soot.
"I've read a great deal about you."
"I hope it met your approval."
"You were at Gettysburg and Atlanta. You commanded the Texas Brigade. They could never make you quit."
"My political enemies among President Davis's cabinet sometimes made note of that fact."
"What's the date?" I asked.
"It's April 21,1865."
"I don't understand. "
"Understand what?"
"Lee has already surrendered. The war's over. What are you doing here?"
"It's never over. I would think you'd know that. You were a lieutenant in the United States Army, weren 't you?"
"Yes, but I gave my war back to the people who started it. I did that a long time ago."
"No, you didn't. It goes on and on."
He eased himself down on an oak stump, his narrow eyes lighting with pain. He straightened his artificial leg in front of him. The hand that hung out of his sling had wasted to the size of a monkey's paw. A corporal threw a log into the campfire, and sparks rose into the tree branches overhead.
"It's us against them, my friend," he said. "There're insidious men abroad in the land." He swept his crutch at the marsh. "My God, man, use your eyes."
"The federals ? "
"Are your eyes and ears stopped with dirt? "
"I think this conversation is not real. I think all of this will be gone with daylight."
"You're not a fool, Mr. Robicheaux. Don't pretend to be one."
"I've seen your grave in New Orleans. No, it's in Metairie. You died of the yellowjack."
"That's not correct. I died when they struck the colors, suh." He lifted his crutch and pointed it at me as he would a weapon. The firelight shone on his yellow teeth. "They'll try your soul, son. But don't give up your cause. Occupy the high ground and make them take it foot by bloody foot."
"I don't know what we're talking about."
"For God's sakes, what's wrong with you? Venal and evil men are destroying the world you were born in. Can't you understand that? Why do I see fear in your face?"
"/ think maybe I'm drunk again. I used to have psychotic episodes when I went on benders. I thought dead men from my platoon were telephoning me in the rain."
"You're not psychotic, lieutenant. No more than Sykes is."
"Elrod is a wet-brain, general."
