Cold Mountain

Ruby and Ada fix the garden as the first “real frost” (128) draws closer. A wagon arrives on the farm, filled with lost people. The wagon is loaded with the people’s possessions, leaving the three woman, the women’s children, and an enslaved married couple to travel on foot. The three women tell Ada that they have fled Tennessee. They are heading to South Carolina to escape the Federal troops. The women’s husbands are soldiers in the Confederate Army and their property was raided, leading to the loss of their valuables. Their houses were burned down. Ruby and Ada show hospitality to their guests, inviting them to sleep in the hayloft and offering them food. The next day, they offer breakfast to the traveling group.

Once the travelers are gone, Ada and Ruby inspect their apple orchard and share a picnic together. They talk and then doze in the sun. Later, they continue their pleasant day by reading on the porch. Ada talks about her previous visit to Charleston, just before the beginning of the war. Ada was a guest at a number of parties. On the last evening, she attended a party aboard a boat. Also at the party was Blount, a young man from Savannah who flirted “tirelessly” (135) with her, then confessed to her that he was scared of the war. Ada comforted Blount and then went back to her cousin’s house.

Ada tells Ruby about how she noticed an attractive woman and, still feeling strange about these feelings, then realized that she was staring at her own reflection. Later, Ada learned that Blount was one of many men killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Seemingly unimpressed by Ada’s story, Ruby heads for bed. She leaves behind Ada, who is caught in an introspective mood. She thinks about nights like these, when she stayed up talking with her father. She thinks about how much she has learned during her time in the mountains.

As Inman continues his “necessarily waggling” (141) journey, he is preoccupied with his sense of isolation and loneliness. He meets very few people; he communicates with fewer still. Eating the same diet for days and weeks, he feels a need to do something drastic. When he comes across a group of young women washing their clothes in a river, he steals their picnic basket. To assure himself that he is not a thief, he leaves behind money for the food.

A short time later, Inman feels as though someone is following him. Soon, he discovers that the preacher whom he tied to a tree is on his trail. The preacher— whose name is Solomon Veasey—wants to thank Inman for preventing him from “mortal sin” (144). Inman is not pleased by Veasey’s appearance, yet he reluctantly agrees to travel with the preacher.

They reach a seemingly abandoned house with beehives in the yard. Inman harvests the honey, allowing the two men to eat well. That night, they enter a shallow pool of water to catch a catfish after a long struggle. The fish is very large and, again, they eat well. After they eat, Veasey talks about his experiences in the war. He was traumatized by a brutal “shoulder to shoulder” (153) encounter, fought in a collapsed tunnel near the town of Petersburg.

After a night’s rest, the men continue their journey. They encounter no issues, other than a light rain. When Veasey threatens a shopkeeper with a gun, however, Inman must intervene. He hits Veasey on the head with a club. They find a lodging house that is willing to allow deserters inside. This gives Inman a break from Veasey, who entertains himself by purchasing the services of an African American sex worker named Big Tildy. Even this causes conflict, however, as a rival suitor for Big Tildy’s services threatens Veasey and Inman must intervene. After his dinner, Inman prepares to sleep in the hayloft. He meets a man named Odell and they stay up late, swapping stories and drinking alcohol.

Odell tells his story to Inman. His family were rich planters and Odel married the daughter of a similarly wealthy planter family. The arrangement did not please him, however, as he fell in “unseemly love” (162) with an enslaved woman named Lucinda. This relationship changed Odell’s life, driving him “far past the point of lunacy” (162) with love. The affair caused a rift between Odell and his father. His father responding by selling Lucinda to an enslaver in Mississippi. Odel went in search of Lucinda, abandoning everything he had to be with her. He has not found her yet, he tells Inman. He also shares memories of the terrible, violent ways in which enslaved persons are treated. One woman, he remembers, was locked in a cage and left to be eaten by buzzards.

The next morning, Inman does not wait for Veasey. Nevertheless, Veasey soon catches up with Inman. He has a cut that, he explains, was inflicted by Big Tildy when he began “haggling over price” (167). Veasey is pleased with his evening, nonetheless.

On a cold, rainy day, Ruby and Ada head to town. Ada is in “something of a mood” (169). Working on the farm is hard and physically demanding. Her body aches. Ruby, meanwhile, is happier. She lists every bird she sees by the side of the road.

As the rain clears, Ada cheers up. In town, she purchases a few items that—until recently—seemed financially unattainable. She buys pencils, a journal, and books. Paying a visit to the house of the wealthy Mrs. McKennet, however, she is horrified by the way in which her host tries to present the war as “glorious and tragic and heroic” (173). On the way home, the brutality of the war is emphasized by a prisoner who speaks to Ada and Ruby through the bars of his cell. He tells them his sad story.

The prisoner had been hiding in his father’s house with two other men. The Home Guard, led by the brutal Teague, discovered their hiding place and raided the house. They beat the prisoner’s father and stabbed him. The man was left to die. The two other men were shot and killed. The Home Guard bound the prisoner and then dragged him to the town’s jail, as “it’d look better” (183) to bring at least one person in alive. The young soldier, the prisoner says, was named Birch.

On their way home, Ada and Ruby discuss the prisoner. Their conversation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a rare blue heron. The bird is before them long enough for Ada to sketch it. She writes the date on her drawing: October 9, 1864. Ada and Ruby resume their journey, with Ruby sharing a story she heard from her father. Her mother, she said, described her father as a blue heron, referring to a man other than Stobrod. The confession shocks Ada, so much so that they walk the rest of the way in silence. Ruby does not comment on the many other birds they see.

Eventually, Ada feels the need to share a story. She speaks about her mother, Claire, who died in childbirth. When Claire was 16, she met Monroe, 25. They quickly fell in love; Monroe asked Claire’s father to marry her as soon as possible after her 18th birthday. He bought an engagement ring, and, on the same day it arrived, Monroe saw Claire kissing another man. He was a Frenchman and a friend of her father. Monroe ran away. That night, he came across a church on fire. He tried (and failed) to save the church. Later, he left for England. Twenty years passed and Claire returned to Charleston. By this time, she was a poor widow with no children. Monroe, having returned to America, sought to marry her, just as he had before. Monroe married Claire and, for two years, they were happy. Claire died giving birth to Ada; Monroe dedicated his life to his new daughter.