As exhausted soldiers on both sides collapsed to the ground to catch much needed sleep, the two-army staffs waited for orders from their commanders. Longstreet came · to Lee’s headquarters to see what devilment the next day would bring and, for one more time, to make his own case.
“How is your corps?” Lee finally looked up from the map and acknowledged Longstreet’s presence.
“They fought well,” Longstreet said. “My adjutant has the initial casualty figures and gave them to your adjutant.” He paused, but Lee did not ask, so he continued. “We lost many good men today.”
“So did the Federals,” Lee said.
Longstreet felt What little energy he had left drain out of his body. He sat down heavily on a campstool, not even interested in looking at the map. He knew the terrain now by memory.
“You have an intact division,” Lee said. “One that has not yet entered the fray.”
Longstreet nodded. “Pickett came up just before dark. I held him back as it was too late for him to join the fight.”
“Good,” lee said.
“Do you remember what we did last year at Gaines’ Mill?”
Longstreet blinked, not quite believing what he was,hearing. “Right up the center?”
“The Union lines are solid,” Lee acknowledged. ‘They’re packed along that damn ridge tight. But” — Lee emphasized the word — “last year they had the same type of position at Gaines’ Mill on Turkey Hill. Hood smashed right into them and once he broke the line, their collapse was complete.”
“Hood’s wounded,” Longstreet said. “The surgeon thinks he’ll live, but he’s out of the fight.”
Lee looked to the east, as if he could see Cemetery Ridge in the dark. “We break them there, we can run over their entire army. They’re packed in there so tight, they won’t be able to retreat.
Longstreet found Lee’s logic strange, looking only at a possibility instead of the initial reality of what it meant for the Union forces to be so tightly formed.
“1 also have two divisions from Ewell that saw little action today,” Lee said. ‘’Pickett will make the initial assault and breakthrough. Then Ewell’s men will finish the Union men.”
Lee smiled. “And Stuart’s cavalry is on the way. Two of his brigades will be here tomorrow. We’ll be able to chase the Federals all the way to Washington in disarray.”
“Sir,” Longstreet finally said, ‘’the only advantage to the position we hold now is that we can abandon it with relative ease in the morning.”
Lee’s head snapped around toward Longstreet as if he had been struck a blow. “Retreat?”
“Disengage, and then flank Meade,” Longstreet argued with little conviction, knowing the decision had already been made.
“Pickett will do it,” Lee said. He stood. “I am going to get some sleep.”
Longstreet watched his old friend walk to his tent and disappear inside. It was only then that Longstreet realized Lee had issued him no orders nor sent any out.
Across the way, Meade was meeting with his corps commander, contemplating doing exactly what Longstreet was suggesting-pulling back. He’d even had his chief of staff draw up orders for a withdrawal earlier in the evening. All that was needed was to hand them out.
The day had been bloody and long. While Meade had initially felt very confident about his position and army, having repulsed the Southern attacks all across his front, as darkness grew, so did his doubts. Lee was over there and · who knew what the Virginian planned for the morning?
They met in the small parlor of a house the army had commandeered. Twelve generals crowded into a room less than ten feet by twelve to discuss the future of the Army of the Potomac. There was a card table in the center on which a map was placed, lit by two sputtering candles.
Meade began the meeting in a way Lee would have never considered saying he would follow the course of action the majority of those in the room agreed on. He posed three questions to his generals, which they would vote on: 1. Should the army remain in position or retire to a position closer to their lines of supplies? 2. 2. If they remained in place, mould they attack or await lee’s attack? 3. 3. If they decided to stay on the defensive in the current position, how long should they wait?
It Was a strange meeting, one that West Point had certainly not taught as the proper way for an army commander to operate. But Meade was shaken by the casualty lists that were coming in to his headquarters and he felt it best to give some responsibility for the decision on the army’s course of action to the men who had seen the combat firsthand that day and whose men were the names on those lists.
The vote went quickly. On question 1 it was unanimous that the army stay in place and not withdraw, indicating the confidence all of the generals felt in their positions. The vote on question 1 was also unanimous, that they should remain on the defensive and await lee’s attack rather than leave their positions and attack lee. Only on question 3 was there some disagreement, and Meade realized those who favored staying longer had seen less combat whereas those who wanted a shorter wait had seen more that day.
Meade ended the meeting by telling his generals that they would remain in place. He dismissed them all but General Gibbon, who held the center of Cemetery Ridge.
“If Lee attacks tomorrow, it will be on your front,” Meade told Gibbon.
Gibbon was surprised. “Why do you think that?”
“Because he has made attacks on both our flanks and failed,” Meade explained. “If he decides to attack again, it will be in the center, which he has not seriously tested.”
Gibbon smiled grimly. “I hope he does come. Because if he does, we will defeat him.”
Amelia Earhart waited until long after darkness fell to leave her tree, The Union lines had moved forward, leaving her in the company of the dead from the battle earlier in the day. Occasionally distant shots rang out, but other than that there was an eerie silence, given that so many men were gathered within a half dozen miles of her location.
She reached the ground, pulling her Valkyrie suit with her on its tether, and moved toward where she had hidden the crystal skull case. She stumbled over a corpse, the · man’s arms extended upward in some last plea, and locked in place like that. She found the boulders and dug through the leaves, pulling out the case. With trembling hands she lifted the lid.
There was a faint blue glow deep inside each of the nine skulls. Very faint.
If today had not been enough, what more was needed?
Earhart immediately knew the answer to that because she knew what the next day would bring and she knew where she had to be with the skulls. She closed the lid on the case and began carefully making her way down the hill to the north, pulling the Valkyrie suit behind her. She considered putting it on, but thought she was better off presenting herself as human rather than a strange white creature if she ran into anyone. When she passed a cluster of bodies, she forced herself to go over them. Strapped to one of the corpse’s back was a spade. She removed it and took it with her.
As she cleared Little Round Top, she walked onto a long field with knee- to waist-high grass. To her left were the Confederate lines, hidden in a tree line. To her right, on the high ground, were the Union forces. Campfires clearly delineated both lines but there was little sound.
Earhart made her way about a mile and a half north, then stopped. She put the plastic case on the ground. She looked right, toward the stonewall of the Union lines, then left to the tree line. She was about equidistant between the two.