Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara [248]
Suddenly there was a new sound, from outside. He looked toward the window, and Pendleton raised his head, and the sound began to fill the room, loud and piercing. Outside, the soldiers had gathered close to the cottage, and through the tears their voices rose together in one high chorus—the rebel yell.
55. LEE
Sunday, May 10, 1863
HE HAD sent them away, Taylor, the others, reporters and well-wishers, was alone now in the tent. The desk was covered with paper, a hundred requests, promotions, supply, and he could not look at any of it, sat in the small, stiff chair and stared at the blank walls of the tent.
On the table was also a wire, from Jefferson Davis, requesting he come to Richmond, discuss the new strategy. He would go, of course, do it all again, knowing that soon Hooker would be gone and someone else would fall into the role, and the war would start up, all over again, as though none of it had happened before.
He had tried not to think of Jackson, of the death, had kept his mind on the papers, but there had to be the moment, this moment, when the distractions would fade, when he must talk to God, to ask, Why? There would be no reply, of course. The answers were all in his faith, that it was all God’s will, and that there was nothing else he could do but go on believing, and accepting that in the end there was a Plan. But he had never thought . . . there were already so many challenges, they had overcome so much, fought the good fight when anything less would have cost them the war, when it all would have been lost. He could not help but wonder . . . have we done something wrong? Has the cause become something else, some misguided effort? And he could think of nothing that had changed, why he was fighting, why the war must go on.
Now, the face came to him, the clear image, and he let it come, could not block it out, saw the lightning in the ice-blue eyes, the old cap, and he felt something inside him give way, and he leaned forward, put his face in his hands, and began to cry.
May 20, 1863
TAYLOR WAS standing beside him, and together they were reading the lists for promotion. They heard the horses, and Lee stood up, moved outside the tent, the sun high and hot, and he saw the big man dismounting, the short cigar.
Longstreet had returned to the bloody ground around Chancellorsville several days after the fighting had ended, and the ultimate result of the excursion south had not been so positive. He had succeeded in sending sorely needed supplies north, but his own goal of pushing the Federal presence out of southern Virginia was not realized, and he had reluctantly pulled his troops away from the outskirts of Suffolk, which the Federal Army still occupied. It had taken a firm order from Lee to bring him back, but now Pickett and Hood had added to the strength of Lee’s recuperating forces.
Lee had spent several days in Richmond, had found Davis to be more fragile than ever, infected with a growing paranoia about the defense of the capital, and so Lee now knew there would be no further support, no reinforcements. Davis would not interfere in Lee’s strategies, but any plan Lee had would have to be accomplished with the troops he had on hand. After the difficult fight in the Wilderness, many in the army had gone home, many were no longer fit to serve, and so even with Longstreet’s return, he had little more than forty thousand effective troops. In the North a paralyzed Hooker was still in command. The wheels of change were slow, and so Lee knew the next move would be his.
“General Longstreet, welcome.”
“General.” He touched the hat, and Lee suddenly held out a hand, something he rarely did, and Longstreet took it, and there was a short, quiet moment. Longstreet said, “I am deeply sorry for the loss of General Jackson.”
Lee nodded, motioned toward the tent, and the two men went inside.
They sat, Lee behind his small desk, and he stared at the piles of papers, said, “We should not regret the loss of General Jackson. He is sitting with God. There is no unhappiness in that.” Longstreet looked