The Reluctant Belle (Closed for VelvetSatin)

[FireyIce]

David Smith had spent his whole life in Virginia prior to the Civil War. Though he was able to travel every now and then, it wasn’t usually for a long period of time or distance. He was 19 when the war first broke out and before that, there was about four years of his life that he hadn’t heard about a lot of war. As the son of a blacksmith, David took a lot of pride in his work and never really felt any allegiance to either side, though he could tell some of the differences. Living on the southern border of Virginia, he helped create weapons for people all over, not only in the north or south, but also out west.

It wasn’t until one day that he learned of what happened at Fort Sumter. He was working diligently when he saw his father come towards him.

“David!” his father exclaimed as he tried to get his attention, “Stop working for a minute.” Once David heard his father, he stopped and stood up. As he straightened up, he showed how physically fit he was while standing at just above six feet tall. He wiped the sweat from his brown hair and blinking his deep blue eyes as he hard what had just happened. As a result, the promise of making so much more had been cut down due to the Confederacy taking up arms.

Though he wasn’t too happy to hear about the changes, he had spent the next several months working just as hard. Every now and then, he would create a small amount of arms and have them sent down to the southern states for an inflated price. David didn’t know if his actions were part of the reason the Confederacy started to succeed in Virginia, all he knew is that on a cool night, his town was attacked and his family laid there slain.

It was shortly after that, the next day in fact, when David Smith found himself standing in front of a Union officer offering to join, to have a chance to fight. David wanted revenge and justice. He wanted to make sure that his hate was in alignment with what he now viewed as the dogs that existed, of which he hated. Though he knew that his country would ask a lot from him, he didn’t know how far he would take himself until the following months when he went from a lowly private to a sergeant, finding that he was constantly going up and down the eastern coast, passing between Virginia and South Carolina a lot. Though it would only be a matter of time before David would meet Caroline and have the war spread from just the battlefield.

 

[FireyIce]

David had spent the last few months going in and out of battles, working with the Union to make their way farther down south heading back and forth between Virginia and South Carolina for the majority of it. One of the problems that he noticed is that there were a lot of individuals that were trying to hide in civilian’s homes. Once David realized what kind of problem this was, he went to talk to his commanding officer.

“Sir,” he said as he entered the Colonel’s tent, “I’d like to run an idea by you.” He saw that there were a few other officers around and knew most of them but would prefer the idea to be more of an isolated idea. “Can we talk in private?” he inquired as he looked at the staff’s reaction.

“Leave us,” the Colonel said. In a matter of moments, the tent was just as empty as the man looking at David had been use to at night. “What is it?” he asked sternly. It wasn’t common for a high ranking officer to have a meeting, especially a private meeting with someone enlisted, but with all of the work David did, he had learned to trust him.

He cleared his throat as he began to speak. “I would like to propose having a few individuals under my command and, essentially, we would be posing as Confederate troops, trying to find out who is housing them and bringing them back to you.” He waited as the colonel gave a response.

A few days had passed and David had been able to get two other individuals to go on board with his plan. As much as they weren’t fans of it, they did see what purpose it served in the big picture. They were farther south than they expected and had managed to meet up with a few towns that supported them. Some of the hotels allowed them to stay for free and some of the locals had brought them food. It wasn’t until one night when they knocked on the door of a house and found there were individuals hiding not only Confederated soldiers, but also stockpiles of arms.

Over the course of the following weeks, David and his crew became more proficient with doing their new jobs. It wasn’t until they entered South Carolina and saw people become more leery of them and their actions. Still they tried to endure. Within a short amount of time, they reached a small plantation, not knowing that it was ran by the Harris family.