The next two ragged veterans to return to Blackthorn Hall are men who never saw any particular reason to abandon weapons simply because newer ones had appeared. Both had served with the 27th Virginia Cavalry, both had spent much of the war using old fashioned muskets with considerable effectiveness, and both had survived by combining patience with the sort of stubbornness that often passes for wisdom in veterans. The summons of Lucien Beauregard Saint Clair has drawn them back into the old circle, carrying weapons that may be outdated but are still perfectly capable of doing what they were made to do.
Obadiah Mason Chiswell
Obadiah Mason Chiswell had never possessed enough money to replace equipment simply because something newer had become available, which explains why he entered the 27th carrying an old percussion musket that had already seen years of service. Other cavalrymen mocked the weapon until Chiswell demonstrated that a large lead ball fired from an unfashionable musket remained perfectly capable of ruining a man’s afternoon.
Chiswell often served dismounted whenever the regiment required additional firepower, and he became known for extraordinary patience, careful loading and a refusal to waste ammunition merely because other men were shooting. He was never the fastest man in the regiment, but he was often the one still firing steadily after everyone else had exhausted both their cartridges and their enthusiasm.
After the surrender he carried the same musket home and continued using it for hunting, occasionally remarking that unlike governments, armies and currencies, black powder remained dependable. He worked small farms, repaired fences and took whatever employment came his way, while the old regiment gradually became something remembered rather than something lived.
Chiswell returned to Blackthorn Hall because his father had once worked for the Saint Clair family and because he considers obligations to be inherited almost as readily as land. He does not pretend to understand Lucien’s darker interests, although he has recently developed the habit of loading his musket before walking anywhere near the family burial ground after sunset.
Thaddeus Ewell Fontaine
Thaddeus Ewell Fontaine had always seemed older than the men around him, even when he was still young, and he distrusted most innovations on the grounds that they usually created new ways for things to go wrong. He disliked repeating firearms, breech loaders and officers who spoke too enthusiastically about progress, preferring the musket he understood and could repair himself with little more than oil, wire and stubbornness.
During the war Fontaine became a dependable rear guard and occasional marksman, although calling him a sharpshooter within hearing distance usually resulted in a lengthy explanation about the difference between careful shooting and showing off. He survived several disastrous actions by possessing an almost supernatural ability to recognise when an officer was about to issue an order that should be ignored.
The postwar years found Fontaine working small farms and avoiding politics with equal determination. He wanted little from the new world and expected even less from it, until rumours reached him that men of the 27th were gathering once more at Blackthorn Hall.
Fontaine arrived without invitation, carrying his musket, bedroll and enough ammunition for what he described simply as unfinished business. Of all the veterans at Blackthorn Hall, he seems least disturbed by the increasingly unnatural events surrounding Lucien Saint Clair, maintaining that Virginia has always contained stranger things than respectable people are prepared to admit.
Chiswell and Fontaine bring a slower but very deliberate sort of firepower to Lucien’s growing force, and neither man feels particularly disadvantaged by carrying weapons that others consider obsolete. Both understand their muskets completely, both know exactly what those weapons can and cannot do, and both possess enough experience to make every shot count rather than waste ammunition trying to impress anybody.
Their return also strengthens the sense that the old 27th Virginia Cavalry is becoming something more than a gathering of ageing veterans ( a bit like most wargames clubs!). Chiswell watches the family cemetery with growing suspicion, while Fontaine accepts the strange riders and disturbed graves with a fatalism that is almost reassuring, and both seem prepared to remain at Blackthorn Hall for as long as Lucien continues giving the remnants of the regiment a reason to ride again.
