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Three and one are one by Ambrose
Beers. In the year eighteen sixty one,

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Bar Lasseter, a young man of
twenty two, lived with his parents

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and an elderly sister near Carthage,
Tennessee. The family were in somewhat humble

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circumstances, subsisting by cultivation of a
small and not very fertile plantation, owning

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no slaves. They were not rated
among the best people of their neighborhood,

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but they were honest persons of good
education, fairly well mannered, and as

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respectable as any family could be,
if uncredentialed by personal dominion over the sons

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and daughters of ham. The elder
Lasseter had that severity of manner that so

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frequently affirms an uncompromising devotion to duty
and conceals a warm and affectionate disposition.

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He was of the iron of which
martyrs are made, but in the heart

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of the matrix had lurked a nobler
metal, fusible at a milder heat,

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yet never coloring nor softening the hard
exterior by both heredity and environment. Something

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of the man's inflexible character had touched
the other members of the family. The

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Lasster home, though not devoid of
domestic affection was a veritable citadel of duty,

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and duty ah duty is as cruel
as death. When the war came,

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it found in the family, as
in so many others in the state,

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a divided sentiment. The young man
was loyal to the Union, the

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others savagely hostile. This unhappy division
begot an unsupportable domestic bitterness. And when

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the offending son and brother left home
with an avowed purpose of joining the federal

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army, not a hand was laid
in him, not a word of farewell

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was spoken, not a good wish
followed him out into the world, whither

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he might meet with such spirit as
he might whatever fate awaited him. Making

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his way to Nashville, already occupied
by the army of General Buell, he

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enlisted in the first organization that he
found, a Kentucky regiment of cavalry,

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and in due time passed through all
the stages of military evolution from raw recruit

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to experienced trooper. A right good
trooper he was, too, although in

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his oral narrative from which this tale
is made, there is no mention of

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that the fact was learned from his
surviving comrades. For bart Lasseter has answered

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here to the sergeant whose name is
Death. Two years after he had joined

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it, his passed through the region. Whence he had come. The country

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thereabout had suffered severely from the ravages
of war, having been occupied alternately and

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simultaneously by the belligerent forces, and
the sanguinary struggle had occurred in the immediate

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vicinity of the Lasseter homestead. But
of this the young trooper was not aware.

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Finding himself in camp near his home, he felt a natural longing to

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see his parents and sister, hoping
that in them, as in him,

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the unnatural animosity of the period had
been softened by time and separation. Obtaining

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a leave of absence, he set
foot in the late summer afternoon, and

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soon after the rising of the full
moon, was walking up the gravel path

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leading to the dwelling in which he
had been born. Soldiers in the war

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aged rapidly and in youth. Two
years are a long time. Bar Lasseter

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felt himself an old man, and
had almost expected to find the place in

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ruin and desolation. Nothing apparently was
changed. At the sight of each dear

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and familiar object. He was profoundly
affected, his heart beat audibly, his

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emotions nearly suffocated him, and ache
was in his throat. Unconsciously, he

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quickened his pace until he almost ran
his long shadow, making grotesque efforts to

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keep its place beside him. The
house was unlighted and the door opened.

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As he approached and paused to recover
control of himself, his father came out

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and stood bareheaded in the moonlight.
Father cried, the young man, springing

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forward with outstretched hand. Father,
the elder man looked him sternly in the

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face, stood a moment motionless,
and without a word, withdrew into the

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house. Bitterly disappointed, humiliated,
unexpressibly hurt, and altogether unnerved. The

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soldier dropped into a rustic seat in
deep dejection, supporting his head upon his

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trembling hand. But he would not
have it. So he was too good

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a soldier to accept repulse as defeat. He rose and entered the house,

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passing directly to the sitting room.
It was dimly lighted by an uncurtained east

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window. On a low stool by
the hearth side, the only article of

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furniture in place, sat his mother, staring into the fireplace, strewn with

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blackened embers and cold ash. He
spoke to her tenderly, interrogatively and with

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hesitation, but she neither answered,
nor moved, nor seemed in any way

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surprised. True there had been time
for her husband and to apprise her of

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their guilty son's return. He moved
nearer and was about to lay his hand

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upon her arm, when his sister
entered from an adjoining room, looked him

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full in the face, past him
without a sign of recognition, and left

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the room by a door that was
partly behind him. He had turned his

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head to watch her, but when
she was gone, his eyes again sought

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his mother. She too had left
the place. Mar Lasseter strode to the

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door by which he had entered.
The moonlight on the lawn was tremulous,

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as if the sward were a rippling
sea. The trees and their black shadows

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shook as in a breeze, blended
with its borders. The gravel walk seemed

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unsteady and insecure to walk on.
This young soldier knew the optical illusions produced

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by tears. He felt them on
his cheek, and he saw them sparkle

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on the breast of his troopers jacket. He left the house and made his

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way back to camp. The next
day with no very definite intention, with

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no dominant feeling that he would rightly
have named, He again sought the spot.

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Within a half a mile of it, he met Bushrod Albro, a

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former playfellow and schoolmate, who greeted
him warmly. I'm going to visit my

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home, said the soldier. The
other looked at him rather sharply and said

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nothing I know, continued Lesser,
that my folks have not changed, but

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there have been changes. Albrow interrupted, Everything changes. I'll go with you,

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if you don't mind, we can
talk as we go, But Albro

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did not talk. Instead of a
home, they found only fire blackened foundations

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of stone, enclosing an area of
compact ash pitted by reins Lasseter's astonishment was

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extreme. I could not find the
right way to tell you, said Albro.

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In the fight a year ago,
your house was burned by a federal

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shell, and my family where are
they in heaven? I hope all were

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killed by the shell. The end
of three and one are one by Ambrose Beers