Rebecca slowly opened the envelope and with shaky hands removed the papers and began reading. After a moment she looked to Sheridan. "Really, General?"
"Really, Mrs. Gaines."
By now, every man in the room was watching the tableau between the three of them with some degree of interest. Strangely, every man also had a glass in his hand.
Rebecca nodded and slowly folded the papers and placed them back in the envelope. Then she looked to Charlie. "I am sorry. I did address you incorrectly." She paused and then continued as she failed to contain the smile on her face. "Brigadier General Redmond."
Slowly, the reality of what she had said soaked into Charlie’s consciousness. A serious look came over his face and he drew himself up to full attention, saluting General Sheridan. "Thank you, Sir." Somehow, in that moment, the bits of Em’s lunch were forgotten, the embarrassment and the teasing were forgotten. The man before them was one of the finest field commanders in Sheridan’s force, and had finally been recognized by the War Department as such.
Rebecca smiled with great pride.
Someone handed glasses of brandy to Sheridan and Rebecca.
"Congratulations," He paused and smiled at the couple before him. "General Redmond. Let us pray that with your leadership and determination we all find an end to this conflict soon, so you may return home to your lovely bride. Gentleman, please raise your glasses to Brigadier General Redmond and his lovely fiancéée."
Charlie smiled broadly. "Thank you, gentlemen. General, if you and your men would like to finish your lunch, Miss Rebecca and I will see to quarters for you. When you are ready, we can begin your review."
"Fine. Oh, and Redmond? You might want to change into a clean coat."
Chapter 20
Thursday, December 22
Sheridan was a hard driving commander. He had called Charlie and Polk into conference just as reveille was sounded. McCauley had trailed along with a large dispatch case in either hand. The four men had spent two grueling hours going over the requisition and supply problems that had plagued Charlie since he took over command of the 13th. They had eaten while they went through the ledgers and collected correspondence, trying to find solutions to the basic problem of preparing the 13th for a key role in the spring campaign. Charlie’s desk was piled high with papers and books before they were finished.
"Well, Redmond, as far as I can tell, you have about three quarters of what you need right now."
McCauley added, "And we are scheduled to ship the rest over the course of the next month."
"With all due respect, General and Colonel, the quality of materials we have received is, for the most part, atrocious. If one item in four is actually usable, I would be surprised. Polk, did you get those samples ready for me?"
"Yes, Sir. Duncan and Jocko worked for half the night pulling samples from every one of the lots in the stores."
"Well, have them bring them in. General, Colonel, I want you gentlemen to see just what kind of supplies your quartermaster has been sending us."
Polk rose from his chair beside Charlie’s desk and stuck his head out the door. He spoke muffled words to the trooper standing outside. He turned back into the room, picked up a roll of butcher’s paper and spread it over the large table Charlie used for his staff meetings.
First, Duncan hauled in small bags of flour, meal and salt pork. Behind him, Jocko lugged in several pairs of boots, britches and tunics. Silently the two men filed out, returning immediately with more sample items. Several blankets, a jumble of tack, various pieces of metalwork, and a pair of saddles came next. Finally, Duncan and Jocko carried in a large roll of heavy canvas, which from its clean, unstained appearance, had obviously never been used.
Charlie started with the food supplies. He opened the bag of corn meal and poured it onto the table. "Gentlemen, take a look. One in four bags of meal come in with these little fellows riding along." The little pile of yellow meal was moving, alive with small white grubs. As he poured the flour on the table he added, "Of course, they are clearly additional meat for the men. I have no idea what these are, although I suspect they are rodent feces." There were small, rod shaped black specks mixed in with the flour. "However, neither of these will kill my men. It just gives them a bellyache. Of course, there is the nausea my mess crew suffers from having to deal with it. This, on the other hand," he continued as he opened the third food package, "will kill." As he spoke, he rolled a piece of salt pork on the table, green with mold and moving with maggots. The smell was sickening.
Jocko stepped over and tore the paper off, carrying the offensive materials out of the office. Both Sheridan and McCauley looked slightly green. The salt pork had been a bit overwhelming.
Charlie turned to the uniforms and blankets. "As you can see, gentlemen, the blankets are pitiful." Charlie rolled out three blankets, each of which had holes that were clearly flaws in the basic cloth, rather than from wear. The uniforms were no better. "I cannot keep my men warm with clothes and blankets like this." He nodded to Duncan, who unrolled the canvas tent. The roof of the tent was stitched together, with a seam that was not completed because the canvas was thin and could not hold the stitches well enough to even try to patch it. It was obvious the tent would leak under the lightest of rains. "Nor do we have dry tents for them."
He laid the tack on top of the woolens. "The leather they send us for the horses is no better. Sometimes it comes in green with mildew. Of the last three batches of saddles that came in, almost half had broken trees." He pointed to the obviously unusable saddles. "But the best is the boots. We got an entire shipment of cavalry boots made out of rawhide. Do you know what happens when a rawhide boot gets wet? Let me tell you. They shrink and turn rock hard. We had to cut four of our men out of these. They were desperate; they had no boots so they tried to use what we had. It was very unpleasant, to say the least."
Charlie walked over to his gun cabinet and withdrew two carbines and a pair of pistols. He walked back to the table and held one of the pistols between two fingers by the grips. He gave the pistol a brisk shake. The pistol rattled and a small metal pin fell out. It was the only thing holding the trigger in place. He laid the other pistol beside its mate and opened the breeches of the two carbines. Neither of them had firing pins. "Of course, it does make it difficult to engage the enemy when we have no weapons that will fire."
Charlie looked at his General. "Sir, I contend that if we are to engage the enemy this spring, we will have to be properly supplied. The only resources that have been of the consistent quality needed to properly supply this force have been the horses provided by Cavalry Services. General Wilson’s efforts to organize our mounts were clearly successful; why can we not have the same quality effort from the Quartermaster General’s office?"
Sheridan looked to McCauley. "What have you found, Angus? Is this typical of what our troops are getting?"
"I am afraid so, sir. No one has presented such a…… forceful case before, but we have consistent problems with our suppliers."
Sheridan thought for a while then turned back to Charlie. "Well, General, I believe that your personal plans will require that you make a visit to the capitol in the not too far distant future. I will prepare some dispatches for you to deliver and suggest you take your little demonstration with you. I am sure General Meigs will be fascinated. I have known the man for a long time and find him to be honorable and well intentioned. I cannot say the same for some of the men in his command. In the mean time, I will do what I can to see to it that you get better quality supplies in the future. McCauley, please make a note that every single batch of materials for General Redmond be manually inspected before it is shipped. In fact, see to it that everything we get from the Quartermaster General be inspected. And feel absolutely no compunction about sending back anything that is substandard. Am I clear?"