The family burial ground behind Blackthorn Hall had already surrendered several of its occupants to Lucien Beauregard Saint Clair, but the old plantation had been in the Saint Clair family for generations and there were considerably more names carved into its weathered stones. Some had died peacefully in their beds, others had fallen to disease or accident, while a few had been carried home during the war and buried beneath Virginia soil by families who believed they had finally earned their rest. Lucien regarded such sentiments as unnecessarily restrictive. With the remnants of the 27th Virginia Cavalry Regiment gathering around Blackthorn Hall and his cousin Colonel Augustus Beauregard Saint Clair once more commanding the dead and living alike, three more graves were opened.

Captain Nathaniel Fairfax Saint Clair

Nathaniel Fairfax Saint Clair had been one of the more respectable members of the extended Saint Clair family, which probably explains why Lucien had never particularly liked him while he was alive. A prosperous landowner and militia officer before the war, Nathaniel joined the Confederate cavalry in 1861 and eventually received a captaincy. He was remembered as a calm and methodical officer who preferred careful reconnaissance and a well prepared attack to the dramatic charges favoured by some of his younger relatives.

Nathaniel was killed in 1863 when a Union skirmisher put a rifle ball through his chest during a reconnaissance patrol. His body was recovered and returned to Blackthorn Hall, where he was buried with his sword, boots and the silver spurs presented to him when he received his commission. His widow insisted that he should rest among his ancestors rather than in some distant military cemetery.

Lucien has now corrected that particular mistake.

Nathaniel returned from the earth remarkably well preserved by revenant standards, although the bullet wound that killed him remains clearly visible beneath his ruined coat. Something of the old officer survives within him. He rarely speaks, but when Augustus gives an order Nathaniel responds immediately and with an almost military precision. Among the ragged veterans there are whispered suggestions that Captain Saint Clair actually understands everything happening around him.

Nobody has been sufficiently brave to ask him.

Sergeant Elijah Mercer Whitcomb

Elijah Mercer Whitcomb was not a Saint Clair by blood, but he had earned a place in the family burial ground through decades of service to the household. Before the war he had worked as an overseer of horses and livestock on the Saint Clair estate, becoming particularly respected for his ability to judge a horse almost at a glance. When Virginia went to war, Whitcomb enlisted alongside several younger members of the family and eventually became a sergeant in the 27th Virginia Cavalry.

Whitcomb survived most of the war only to be mortally wounded during the regiment’s final months of campaigning. He was brought back to Blackthorn Hall in a wagon and died there several days later. Augustus himself had once promised that Whitcomb would always have a place among the Saint Clair dead, although neither man could possibly have imagined how literally Lucien would eventually interpret that promise.

Death has done little to improve Whitcomb’s appearance or disposition. His uniform hangs in tatters from a body that seems held together largely through supernatural stubbornness, and one side of his face bears the marks of the wound that eventually killed him. Yet he still displays flashes of his former habits. Horses become nervous when he approaches, but he will sometimes stand beside them for hours, running a dead hand slowly along a frightened animal’s neck as though remembering another life.

The living veterans avoid disturbing him when he does this.

Lieutenant Ambrose Carter Saint Clair

Ambrose Carter Saint Clair had been the troublesome one.

A distant cousin of Lucien and Augustus, Ambrose possessed all the confidence expected of a young Virginia gentleman and considerably less of the judgement. He gambled, drank, fought duels over imagined insults and accumulated debts with an enthusiasm that suggested he regarded creditors as merely another branch of the enemy forces. The outbreak of war provided him with exactly the sort of occupation for which he had apparently been preparing his entire life.

Ambrose proved to be a reckless but undeniably courageous cavalry officer. He volunteered for dangerous patrols, led charges that wiser men would have avoided and developed an alarming habit of appearing behind Union positions with no convincing explanation of how he had reached them. His luck finally failed during a confused cavalry action when he was shot from the saddle and trampled beneath the horses of both sides.

The remains returned to Blackthorn Hall were not entirely complete.

Lucien raised him anyway.

Ambrose is consequently one of the more disturbing revenants now wandering the grounds of Blackthorn Hall. His movements are occasionally awkward and his body bears unmistakable evidence of the violence of his death, but the old recklessness seems to have survived intact. When gunfire begins he advances towards it without hesitation, apparently delighted to discover that death has removed the principal disadvantage of his preferred method of warfare.

Augustus appears particularly pleased to have him back.

Whether Ambrose feels the same way remains uncertain.

The Muster Continues

Three more figures now stand among the gathering forces at Blackthorn Hall, their uniforms rotted, their weapons stained and their allegiance restored by considerably less conventional means than a recruiting sergeant and an oath. Nathaniel brings the cold discipline of the professional officer, Whitcomb the stubborn loyalty of an old cavalryman, while Ambrose contributes precisely the sort of reckless enthusiasm that got him killed the first time.

Lucien, naturally, considers the experiment a complete success.

There are still older graves beneath the trees beyond Blackthorn Hall, their stones leaning beneath moss and Virginia rain, and Lucien has begun spending rather too much time walking among them after sunset. Colonel Augustus has learned not to enquire what his cousin is planning. The Ragged Veterans have learned to keep the shovels close at hand.

It appears that the 27th Virginia Cavalry is still recruiting.