Never Call Retreat - Civil War 03 (32 page)

"Yes, sir."

He stood up and saw that there was something else. "What is it, Walter?"

"We've just had a scout come in. Says he is with Mosby and he carries a dispatch from him." "Concerning?"

"Sir, a large convoy of canal barges carrying Union troops moved this day up the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. They have traveled as far as Hauling Ferry, where they started to unload."

"How many barges? How many men?"

'The note doesn't say, other than 'dozens of barges.'"

"What about the courier?"

"He says it looked like thousands of Yankees. He got across the river just ahead of their patrols and rode straight here."

"Looks like they are trying to close the back door," Pete said, slapping his hands together. Lee nodded in agreement.

He was silent, looking again at the flickering campfires on the far bank. The Union boys had long ago finished their "Battle Hymn" and both sides were now singing 'Tenting Tonight."

"It won't affect us tomorrow," Lee said.

"I don't like it, though," Pete replied. "We've always had a way out of Maryland if need be. They're trying to block it now."

"It won't affect us tomorrow." Lee repeated himself, this time more forcefully. "So what if they block the fords and ferry crossings at this point? Once we destroy Grant, we can destroy each of those positions piecemeal. Scattering troops like that just makes it more certain that we can mass and destroy them. It will just take a little time. First we must win here."

"I'd feel better, though, sir, if we had managed to get our pontoon bridge across that creek and down to the Potomac. We've always operated in the past with a secure line of retreat if need be."

'Those days are finished." Lee replied. "And Grant—did he have a secure line of retreat in May when he crossed the Mississippi and hit Johnston's army and then moved north to invest Vicksburg?"

Pete shook his head.

"No, sir, he didn't. He took the gamble."

"And won. We are all gamblers in this game, General Longstreet. Grant wants to make us nervous. Let him. But if I was one who actually gambled with money, I'd bet a hundred to one that, come dawn tomorrow, Grant will attack. If. he attacks, we defeat him, then it is moot whether the crossings are blocked or not. It will be Grant who will have to try to escape us as we push him back on to that one road over the mountains."

"Grant will attack," Pete agreed.

Lee sat back down in his camp chair.

"The troops blocking the fords. They must be the garrison from Washington. If so, then so much the better. I will order Mosby to let them pass, then once up here he can do a night raid, get across the Potomac, and smash a few of the canal locks. Canals are even more vulnerable than railroads. Destroy a single lock and the entire section above floods out, leaving the boats stranded, while down below the canal gets washed to overflowing. They will be stranded, and we can either turn on Washington or finish them at our leisure."

Pete found he had to nod in agreement.

"I think you should get some rest, General," Lee said. "It will be a hard day's work tomorrow and we must be up early."

"Yes, sir."

Pete stood up and then, strangely, came to attention and formally saluted.

"Good night, sir. And please get some rest as well." "Thank you, General."

Pete walked off, trailing a cloud of cigar smoke, and Lee watched him leave.

Sighing, he turned around and gazed out over the valley, the thousands of fires flickering low, the song from the valley below becoming softer. This time it was "Lorena."

"The years creep slowly by, Lorena ..."

James is dead, and so many out in those fields will be dead this time tomorrow.
..
Please God, let it end here. Bring us victory if it is Your wish
..
. and let it end here.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Monocacy Creek

August 27,1863 4:30 A.M.

G
eneral Hunt, sir." Henry Hunt opened his eyes. A sergeant was leaning over him, holding a lantern. He didn't recognize the man and for a moment was disoriented.

"Sir, you told me to wake you an hour and a half before dawn."

Henry grunted and sat up. A low campfire glowed in front of him, several enlisted men squatting around the fire, one feeding in small sticks while another reached out with a gloved hand and pulled out a battered tin pot.

Henry stood up, stretched, mouth feeling gummy, stomach a bit weak. He had misled Grant about the typhoid; it still troubled him a bit He stepped away to discreetly relieve himself, then came back to the campfire.

The men were part of his new staff. He was never really good with names and had yet to learn theirs, but they were about the business of morning chores, one looking up with a smile and offering him a cup of coffee, another handing over a plate that actually had fried eggs on it and a slab of ham.

He nodded his thanks, the men talking quietly among themselves as he ate his breakfast glad that it stayed down
and settled his stomach. Finished, he set the plate down, took his cup of coffee, and stood back up and lit a cigar.

It was still dark, a mist rising off the river, filling the valley, pale moonlight reflecting off it. In the fields about him there was a thin layer of mist and wood smoke. Many were still asleep, or pretending to sleep, lying in their blanket wrapped in thought. Around low fires small groups were gathered, some silent, some talking.

He walked the few yards down the slope to where the right flank of his grand battery was deployed. A handful of men were still digging; most, however, were asleep, some lying curled up on the ground, others resting under a caisson or field piece.

He started to walk the line. Guns were well placed, inter-valed at ten yards, lunettes thrown up around each piece, some well built to shoulder height on the flanks, a bit lower in front to offer an open field of fire. The horse teams for the ammunition caissons had been unhooked and sent to the rear, a quarter mile back. Lunettes had been thrown up around the dangerous cargo, and bombproofs for the ammunition had been dug by some of the crews and even roofed over with logs.

As he passed, an occasional officer would come to attention, salute. A few offered comments. "We'll give 'em hell today." "How you doing, General?" "Wait till you see the shootin' my boys can do."

He acknowledged each one and walked on.

Every piece was a rifle, either a three-inch ordnance gun or a ten-pound Parrott. He had always liked the look of the Parrott, with its extra band of iron wrapped around the breech, and though it was more cumbersome to move than the three-inch ordnance gun, he always felt that it was a better piece for true long-distance work.

Ammunition was well organized. Each of the forward caissons carried but two rounds of canister—for use if by some chance the rebs did get up close; every other slot was filled with case shot or solid bolts. Each battery had one limber to the rear loaded just with canister if an emergency should arise. During the night twenty additional limber wagons, each loaded with two chests of ammunition, had come up; an additional two thousand rounds and more was on-the way.

Even now trains were hauling ammunition down from Harrisburg to Hagerstown, off-loading it to be sent the final miles along the National Road. Grant had assured him he would be kept well supplied.

He turned and slowly walked back to his headquarters. More men were up. He could feel the tension in the air.

There was a faint brightening to the eastern horizon.

"Gentlemen, time we went to our posts," Henry announced quietly.

East
Bank, Monocacy Creek
4:55
A.M.

P
hil Duvall, now a major, sat up and tossed his blanket aside. Sergeant Lucas was by the fire, poking at the flames with a stick. Their horses were calm, lined up on their tether line; a couple of his men were already up, tending to them, one brushing his mount down and talking quietly to her, rubbing her ear, the horse nuzzling in to him.

"What time is it?" Phil asked. "About five I'd reckon, sir," Lucas replied. Phil went over to the fire, extending his hands. There was a slight chill in the air, rather a comfort after yesterday's heat.

It had been a wonderfully still night. They were no longer down by the bridge. Jeb had assigned a couple of additional companies to him and told him to probe south at dawn, down to the Potomac, that there were reports of Yankees there. An easy day, he hoped.

Lucas handed him a cup of coffee.

"Better get the boys up," Phil said. "It's time to move."

Sg
t. Lee Robinson of the First Texas stood at attention as steam vented from the train and it slowly began to inch its way down the track, a locomotive pushing a single passenger car.

The men around him were silent, saluting as the car drifted by, engine bathing them in steam, bell tolling slowly. It disappeared into the dark. He relaxed, looking around at his men. "A brave lady she was," one of his comrades whispered. Robinson said nothing. He had followed the orders General Lee had given to him, helping to carry McPherson to the rear. No other orders had come after that, and he assumed that he and his boys should stand by as guards, which they had done throughout McPherson's ordeal of dying, helping to fetch small things, some of the men volunteering to help with other wounded when there was nothing to do for the general. Their final task was to carry the body, draped with a Union flag, back to the rail line, since no carriage or wagon could be found. The widow had walked with them, never saying a word, and he had been overwhelmed with guilt, at times wanting to blurt out that he was the one who had shot McPherson. That would bring her no comfort, he knew; in fact, it would forever put a name and a face to the man who had killed her husband.

He looked to the west, to the dark sky, slill filled with stars. To the east Orion was up, a faint glow of indigo and scarlet spreading beneath it.

"Let's go find our unit," Robinson said. "That's where we belong now."

S
ergeant Hazner stood up cautiously. The truce had lasted through the night, men gossiping back and forth across the river, but all had become silent as the eastern sky began to brighten, a Yankee shouting across, "You boys

better hunker down now. The ball is about to commence."

The fog lifting from the river floated just below him, rising up so close it seemed almost solid, as if he could leap put of the trench and walk upon it to the other side.

He hated their position, the one that fate had cast for his regiment, right smack in the middle of the line.

After their fight on the heights, and in Frederick, all had figured that Lee would put them into reserve. Instead they had filed in, just after dusk, directly in front of where Lee had established his headquarters, the Fourteenth South Carolina on the left flank of the log blockhouse overlooking the shattered bridge. No one needed to be told that one hell of a lot of fire was going to be coming their way, and the work of the unit they replaced, though they had dug in, had left something to be desired. He and his men had labored until midnight deepening their trench, dragging up lumber to pile atop it, cutting back brush and small trees to the front to improve fields of fire.

When they paused in their work, they could hear the Yankees engaged in the same work on the other side, not a very comforting sound.

Finally, Colonel Brown ordered them to stand down at midnight and get some rest.

"How are you doing, Hazner?"

"Fine, sir," and he saluted as Brown came up.

"Still quiet," Brown said.

"Not for long, sir."

West Bank of the Monocacy 5:10 A.M.

S
gt. Washington Madison Bartlett of the United States Colored Troops was already up. It had been impossible to sleep. His men had been restless during the night, many sitting around the campfires, already using the
old soldier slang for what it would be like to "see the elephant ," meaning their first day in battle.

Some boasted, others were silent, many prayed. More than a few who could write spent the night penning letters, first for themselves and then for their comrades. A preacher who claimed to have been a recruiter for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts had joined them just before leaving Philadelphia, Reverend Garland White, walked from campfire to campfire, kneeling with the men, offering a prayer, a few words of encouragement, then stood up and went to the next group and knelt again.

He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out two letters: one from his father and the other, now almost in tatters from having been passed around so much, the letter from Lincoln. It was too dark to read them, but simply holding them was like a prayer in itself.

His father, at least, was safely back in the White House, personal buder now to the president. He wondered what his father would say if he could see him now, on this morning of battle.

"Father?"

He turned. It was his son William smiling up at him nervously.

He had been forced to play the role of the sergeant with his son since they joined the army together, ignoring him, yelling at him when need be, even picking him up a few times by his collar and pushing him to his task. But they were in the dark, alone.