Arizona Blue Gunslinger
the barber shop
and Chickamauga
[Chapter Three to Mexican Stand-off]
Blue had two pistols that he always carried with him. One, a belt pistol, cinched against his belly, an 1860 Colt Army .44 caliber revolver and matching holster trimmed to create a powerful yet concealed belt weapon; and his handgun, a Colt .45 single-action, model 1880, which he got when they first dated in ’84. His .44 got it while he was serving in the Army during the Civil War.
He was a soldier from 1860 to 1865 and fought at the Battle of Chickamauga. As Blue sat in the barber’s chair and the barber began to cut his hair, his mind went back to those days in the army. The barber stopped for a second to sharpen the lifter for his cut and shave, then went back to cutting his hair.
Sometimes he had old memories, flashbacks, of the battle at Chickamauga. It would lead to having bad sweats. It was in Virginia that his Company of one hundred and sixty men had to enter many houses to inform the residents that they were about to burn them outside their homes. His faces were horrible. It was one thing to kill a man believing he was fighting a war for the country he lived in, but to burn a person with his whole life in front of him, especially if he was 50 or 60, was against it. most values of anyone.
–It was in August 1861, Blue was just a young man then. Blue was with his friend Smiley, he remembered that he was a good man. Blue said to the barber:
“Watch out for the razor!”
Then Blue started to relive the battle again:
“‘Smiley, he was a good man, soldier. I got him out of trouble. I was just a kid. I thought the world was ending. Smiley didn’t make it to Gettysburg, but he made it to Chickamauga, Sure enough, with me. Too bad I lost track from Smile when I was assigned to go to Gettysburg…with…just lost track of Smiley. I never could find him afterward. Maybe he’s dead. In any case., Locust Gap, yaw, we went into that, didn’t we?, we sure did and took the damn train from there.
“On the train, Smiley got caught between two soldiers, I remember now. I wasn’t a fighter, you know. I came over and asked them if they wanted to try me. Smiley was as happy as a pig to see me. He said to the two boys: ‘ You are not so brave anymore!’ They both knew he wasn’t bluffing, yaw, that’s right, and they decided to leave him pretty good on his own.
“Smiley got a hit [flesh wound] in the battle of Shiloh, again I was lucky, as always. But Chickamauga was different. It was a great fight. The bloodiest fight I had ever seen. I wish I had met Lola back then, he needed some comfort. If ever I thought she was going to die and had an ounce of fear that I didn’t want, it was then.
For some reason, winter has always scared me ever since. It was the only time of the year that he wanted to be safe and sound. Have a warm place, you know. Not taking cold baths in the river, like at Chickamauga Creek, those things stick with you for the rest of your life.”
“Do you say something, Mr. Blue?” asked the barber.
“I must have been dreaming out loud.” Blue said.
“You mentioned Chickamauga, I lost a brother there.” Said the barber.
“That’s what I said, yaw,” Blue said, adding “and I lost my youth there,” and then closed her eyes again.
War is war no matter what Blue thought. They are the battles you remember. The area was large, a few miles in each direction; now he was beginning to relive it again: “North to south and east to west. Smiley and I fought up and down the area. We went in, the Yankees on the 18th, the Confederates, we were already there. When the fighting started, we fought for two days in the woods, in a row; the cedar bole was thick, like my hair back then. Bullets were flying every which way. It seemed to be hitting every leaf on every tree. You can even hear them coming; if you turn, you turn to them or you save yourself by an inch, you better not sit still.
Smiley woke me up at 2:00 AM the first night. You always sleep with one eye open; I was up in a jiffy. ‘Yaw, Smiley,’ I said, ‘where are you?’ it was dark. Right here, blue. He said.
How many do you think we have lost? Smiley asked me.
‘Too hard to tell in this thick dark abyss of a forest,’ I replied.
We’ll see each other in a few days, when it’s all over, I guess. I added.
That afternoon we fought on Lafayette Road. It was another bloody blow. We had fought back and forth on the road all day. Would it ever end…yaw, that’s what I was saying back then. We named the road after Bloody Lane. Then morning came. Bragg knew where everyone was, it seemed. He was cloudy that morning, I remember–; late in the morning, in and out of the forest, up and down. Would it ever end? The worst scare was on my line, what they called the Thomas Line. Thousands were being killed. A soldier is running back across the ridge. But old Thomas just stood there like a rock.
“It seemed that our company had been blown to pieces (he groaned a little, the barber started to shake but calmed down)… The scariest moment for Smiley and I was when it was dark and we had to run up to the muzzles.” of his weapons. I didn’t mind dying, but I didn’t want one in my mouth either. They told us that the next day we would retire to the nearest town. They were hitting us pretty hard. In the end very few men arrived. of the forest alive. For several days he had not heard the song of any bird. Now, on that last day, with the guns silent, I was able to hear the birds again. Maybe that was the best part of the battle, those damn birds singing. Again. As Smiley said, ‘…when you’re hurt and think you’re about to die, the grass looks so much greener.’ It’s all so strange now, it’s been so many years.”‘
“You’re fine, Mr. Blue,” the sheriff said as he walked through the door; the barber stopped instantly from shaving, still a bit nervous.
“Blue,” Blue said frankly.
“Yeah,” the sheriff replied, jumping back and to the side. “I just came to see if you were still my helper, and I told the barber that he can put the bill on the bill of the cities lawyers.”
Blue now opens her eyes, sweating: “Yeah, yeah, yeah…” don’t scare me.
Andy the barber said “I’ll settle the account like you said but I think you better leave Mr Blue alone he’s been having some difficult dreams, that Chickamauga fought Mr Blue, it was a bad one.”
Blue rubbing her eyes, focusing them, commented, “I had an old dream, Chickamauga, wink, that’s right…”
Said the sheriff, “I heard it was quite a battle.”
“Sure I do,” Blue replied, getting up from her shave. Her hairdresser was checking a section of her face for the second time. And Blue knew that the barber was too scared to continue.
“Hey sheriff,” Blue said, “let’s go see the town, I want to get drunk, maybe you have more credit?”
“Sounds good Mr. Blue, or should I say Deputy Blue?”