"Davison said awful things about Miss Rebecca that I would ra..rather not repeat, and as for those other things, sir, I know that sev……several of the men in Major Monty’s command grumbled around about them."
"I assume that he called Miss Rebecca a whore. Anything worse than that?"
Duncan looked very uncomfortable and squirmed under Charlie’s stare. "He said……said……"
"Go on, lad. I am not angry at you. In fact, if it had been me, rather than you, I might be in the uncomfortable position of having to discipline myself."
Duncan laughed a little. Then he stood up straight and looked at his commander. "He said she should be taken out into one of the f..f..fields and shown what a good northern man could do for her, instead of sharing her bed with you. Then he made comments about what Miss Rebecca might do." He took a deep breath. "I tried to ignore him sir, but when he talked about hurting Miss Rebecca I just cou..cou……could not let that go."
"I understand, Duncan. I would have done exactly the same thing that you did. What about the problems he seems to be having with me as his commander?"
"Sir, men grumble. Not……not all of them mean half the things they say, but Davison is just mean sir. Always has been. Major Monty could be in command and he would find something wrong there, too. You just have more for him to hate, sir."
"All right. Your punishment for fighting will be levied at the muster. Time for us to go."
Charlie walked out with Duncan behind him just as Polk came charging up. "Colonel. What has happened?"
Charlie stalked toward the assembly point. "You will have to conduct the action review. Seems Mr. Davison has a major complaint about me as well as a desire to insult our hostess - rather grossly, I might add."
"Rebecca? My Lord, what could someone possibly have to say about Rebecca?"
"Evidently that she is southern trash, a whore and that she should find out what a good Yankee man can do for a woman instead of sharing her bed with me. By the way, I am a southern sympathizer who does not deserve command."
"My, my, Charlie. Did you start the war, too?" Polk chuckled, trying to wrap his mind around this whole blow up and also trying to figure out why Charlie had not whaled on Davison for what had been said about Rebecca. "And what did young Duncan, back there, do."
"Whaled on Davison. Wish I could have."
"Davison said these things to Duncan? Does not seem like a bright thing to do. Anyone with eyes can see Duncan has a horrible crush on Rebecca."
"He said similar things to me." Charlie's voice was dead flat.
"Oh, Charlie, I am sorry. What are we going to do about this?"
"You are going to give Davison a chance to voice his opinion. I am then going to point out a few facts. At which point, any man who agrees with Davison will be invited to go elsewhere. Immediately. Dishonorable discharge for dereliction of duty and failure to obey the orders of the Commander In Chief."
"All right. We will deal with it. Tell me, did Rebecca hear this?"
"To be honest, I do not know."
"I hope not. She has been very kind and does not deserve this kind of disrespect."
"No one does."
The two men arrived at the muster point. "All right, Polk. It is your show."
The second in command took his place in front of the troops, walking back and forth slowly. "All right. Seems you boys need a chance to get some things off your chest. And if you want to do that, we are going to give you a chance to do that right now." He turned and looked into the crowd. "But before that Colonel Redmond has a few things to say to you."
Charlie stepped up and stood before the men. Slowly, he swept his gaze across all of the assembled companies, making eye contact with individual men he knew to be troublemakers and malcontents. Some avoided him; most looked at him with some degree of curiosity.
"It seems that some of you may have problems with the relationship I am trying to build with this community and with some of the work details to which you have been assigned. I also understand that you may have problems with individuals, either among our hosts or within this command. This is your chance to voice your opinions."
He paced in front of the troops. "Before you do, however, you should know that the 13th Pennsylvania is operating on orders directly from the Commander in Chief, and validated by both General Grant and General Sheridan."
"Colonel Polk will be conducting this process, as I have a personal interest. Therefore, I will only speak as a member of the regiment, not as your commanding officer, until such time as it is appropriate for me to perform my duty."
Polk took a step forward. "You heard the Colonel. Any man who has something to say about our situation can say it now, or report to me in my office within the next half hour. But let me tell you, gentleman, I will not tolerate derogatory things being said about Mrs. Gaines. If you have something to say about the Colonel or me, say it now. Nothing else will be tolerated."
He looked to Charlie who was clenching his fists. "Anything else, sir?"
"Davison. I told you that you would have a chance to speak your opinion. You may do so now. Publicly."
Clearly, Charlie was going to bring this issue to a head.
"I do not have anything to say that the men loyal to the Union do not all ready know. That woman is a whore and you are a sympathizer."
"Any man who agrees with Mr. Davison is free to step forward."
Polk watched with some curiosity as about twenty men fidgeted about and then fifteen or so stepped forward.
"Quartermaster. Pay these men their quarterlies and their muster out pay. See to it that they have civilian clothing. Show them as mustered out of the 13th Pennsylvania as of this date. Go in an orderly fashion, leave the battle lines and your release from duty will not be noted as for cause. Create any disruption, harass any civilian in any way, and you will be charged with disobeying a direct order, dereliction of duty, and shown as a dishonorable discharge. Am I clear?"
The men just looked to each other and stared at Charlie, not believing what had just happened. "You cannot do that!" One of the men in the back yelled.
He turned to the regiment. "Oh, yes I can, trooper. This regiment will obey the orders of our Commander in Chief. As such, we will begin the process of reconstructing the Union. The civilians of this community are not armed opponents. They have done nothing to warrant this antipathy. General Grant himself, when he bivouacked here last spring, said this was the most devastated portion of the country he had seen and that these people deserved our support and assistance if they were to successfully return to the Union."
Charlie went on to address the other critical issue, his own commitment to duty. "I have personally served this country for twenty years. I stood at Buena Vista and lived. Some of you have been with me since that time. I stood at Vicksburg. Some of you were there during that bloody hell. I will stand with you as we end this conflict. But I will not have it said that the men of the 13th were ever anything less than honorable gentlemen."
"Oh, and trooper? I can do more than that. The penalty for failure to obey a direct order from your commanding officer during wartime is death."
A sudden chill fell over the restless crowd. The tone of Charlie’s voice made it perfectly clear that he was not threatening them. Instead, he was simply stating that he would have absolutely no compunction about enforcing the punishment should the situation warrant such an extreme act.
Polk signaled to a few armed troopers acting as sentries and they began rounding up the few men that had stepped forward. "Anyone else want out now? This is the time to speak up."
Charlie stood with his arms crossed and his face etched in stone.
They watched, but no one else had anything to say, except for Duncan who raised his hand. "Sir?"
"Corporal Nailer?"
"You told me that I would find out my punishment for fighting, Sir."