The room fell silent the men around him looking pale and drawn as they stood beneath the flickering light of the lanterns suspended from the ceiling.
"I need to know if my flank is secure," he announced after a long silence. "General Ewell, inform General Johnson that I wish an immediate reconnaissance to our left Inform him as well that General Stuart's men will be coming up the road from Hanover, and that they are to link up and contain any threats developing in that direction."
Ewell nodded and stepped from the room.
Lee returned his attention to the map. Left, center, or to the right?
"What else do we know?"
"Their Second and Fifth Corps are coming up," Jed continued.
"How soon?" Again silence.
"How soon?" And this time his voice was sharper and more insistent
"We have to assume they will be up by morning," Longstreet finally interjected. 'To assume otherwise would be dangerous."
"I need to know what exactly is their disposition," Lee replied coldly. "I cannot continue this operation on assumptions. I hear no mention of their Sixth Corps; that's the strongest formation in their army."
"Sir, we brushed around them two days ago down past Manchester," Stuart announced.
"Manchester?"
Jed quickly pointed to the second map on the side of the table, which covered the entire region from Harrisburg in the north down to Washington and west to the valley.
"Here, sir, twenty-five miles to the southeast, nearly halfway back to Baltimore."
'Two days ago. They could be marching behind us even now."
"No, sir," Stuart quickly replied. "My main force is in Hanover. It is, in fact, sir, securing your left flank. No one is moving to flank you."
Lee looked back up at Stuart He knew the boy was reaching for justifications, to make it appear as if he had been performing a valuable service. Indirectly he had. Sixth Corps, old John Sedgwick's command, could very well be twenty-five miles off. Sedgwick might be popular with his own people, but his performance during the Chancellorsville campaign had been abysmal. By all rights Sedgwick should have been crushed against the river after the battle at Salem Church, Lee thought Only the incompetence of my own people saved him.
Sedgwick might still be a day away.
The silence dragged out Left, right or center?
Too many unknowns with the left An advance along that axis also drags us farther away from our reserves, communications, and supplies still on the other side of the South Mountains. Any maneuver would be clearly visible from Cemetery Hill as well.
The center? The vision held for a moment the flags going up the hill, heights crowned with smoke and fire and then the final shattering volley, the men streaming back. So close, so close. And now four thousand of them dead or wounded, the town a charnel house.
My fault I thought we could push them off. Just one more push. Perhaps if it had been better coordinated, all of Johnson's brigades going in at the same time as Anderson. No matter what the cause, though, four thousand men were dead or wounded for nothing. Tomorrow the Union will have even more forces on those hills, and our casualties would be even greater. I cannot let that happen again.
He kept staring at the map, gauging, judging distances, the ticking of the clock in the stationmaster's office, the steady undercurrent of the ever-present army outside, distant conversations, a horse whinnying in pain, the echo of a pistol shot ending the cries, the creaking of wagons passing, the moaning of the wounded suffering inside the jostling ambulances.
His finger traced across the map of the battlefield one more time. "Here."
There was a stirring as the men around him leaned over.
"Our left is uncertain. Besides, deployment to that flank will be observed from the cemetery. We tried the center…" and he fell silent
"It is here, on our right These two hills. Our advance to that position will be covered by this ridge," and as he spoke ' he pointed out the crest running south from the seminary.
"Deploy by dawn, advance en echelon overlapping the two hills, cutting off this road that goes back to Taneytown. Doing that we flank Cemetery Hill and cut them off."
No one spoke and slowly he looked up, his gaze meeting Longstreet's.
Longstreet said nothing, unlit cigar clenched firmly in the comer of his mouth. He caught a flicker of a gaze from Ewell, who had come back into the room. Hill, obviously ill, eyes glazed, stared at the map, saying nothing. Jed Hotchkiss, assuming the role of a lowly major in a roomful of generals, stood with gaze unfocused, eyes locked straight ahead.
"General?" Lee asked.
Longstreet took the cigar out of his mouth and finally shook his head. "We were thinking of something different, sir."
"'We'?"
"Before you arrived here, sir." Ewell shifted uncomfortably.
Pete fished in his pocket for a match and struck it against the side of the table, puffing his cigar to life.
"You know that I always seek the advice of my commanders," Lee replied evenly. "Go ahead."
"Our opportunity for a decisive victory here is finished, sir."
Lee could feel his features flush. He lowered his eyes, looking back at the map.
"I don't see it that way, General Longstreet," he finally replied.
The tension in the room was palpable, hanging in the air like the smoke coiling up from Pete's cigar. No one dared speak.
"Do you know why we are here?" Lee finally asked. "Sir?"
"Here, gentlemen, here," and his voice rose slightly as he stabbed down with a fingertip, pointing at Hotchkiss's map of Pennsylvania and Maryland.
No one spoke.
"Three weeks ago, before we started this campaign, you know that I met with President Davis. Gentlemen, you might be filled with confidence, it is fair to say that our President is confident, but I tell you we are starting to lose this war."
"Sir, that is not true," Stuart interjected heatedly. "Those Yankees run whenever we… hit them."
"General Stuart, hear me out!"
Stuart, crestfallen, lowered his head.
"Dispatches from Richmond arrived only three days ago indicating that Vicksburg will most likely fall within the week. You've seen the newspapers we've taken up here; they're already proclaiming the victory.
"In central Tennessee, Bragg is falling back. Before the summer is out, Chattanooga will be threatened; and if that falls, Atlanta will soon be on the front line. A Union army has landed before Charleston, and even now they are closing the ring on that city.
"General Stuart, I have already heard that you captured a hundred and twenty wagons outside of Washington and that is what slowed your march."
Stuart puffed up slightly, but a glance at his commander warned him to silence.
"How desperate are we for supplies when a hundred wagons and their mules become a major prize?"
No one spoke.
"Don't you see that they can replace those wagons in a day? If tonight we had captured that accursed hill and had taken every gun on it, a day later their foundries would cast a hundred more guns to replace them. Their blockade is strangling us as surely as an executioner's rope."
Lee stepped back from the map table, arms folded, right hand absently rubbing his left shoulder. "We must finish this, and there is only one way to do it Ours is the only army of the South capable of ending it We must seek the battle of annihilation. We must bring out the Army of the Potomac and crush it No more Fredericksburgs, Chancellorsvilles, or Manassases. We must achieve a Saratoga, a Yorktown, a Waterloo."
As he spoke the last words, Lee brought his clenched fist down on the table, startling Ewell, who looked at him with surprise. -
"Defeat the Army of Potomac in detail, force the surrender of their commander, then march on Washington. Even then it will not be over. But it will turn the tide. Such a victory will break the political alliance that Lincoln is barely holding together in Congress. Perhaps, with the Lord's blessing, it would mean, as well, that England and France will at last recognize our government and move to lift the blockade."