Killer Angels, The - Michael Shaara [127]
He closed his eyes. From a tree close by Colonel Fremantle saw him, thought he was resting before the great battle, could not help but wonder at the enormous calm of the man. What an incredible time to go to sleep!
3. CHAMBERLAIN.
Past Little Round Top the ground dipped down into a saddle but the line ran straight, unbroken, along the saddle and up the ridge, rising toward the trees and the cemetery, that northern hill. The line was a marvelous thing to see: thousands of men and horses and the gleaming Napoleons, row on row, and miles of wagons and shells. Marching along the crest, they could see back to the Taneytown Road and the rows of tents, the hospitals, the endless black rows of more cannon, wagon trains. The sun was hot along the ridge, and men had stuck bayonets in the ground and rigged shelter halves, and here and there through scarred trees they could see down into the rocks below, bodies there in black clumps, soft among the gray boulders. Back in the woods of Little Round Top, up on the summit of the hill, they had been alone, but now they were in the midst of the army, the great army, a moving fragment of this unending line of men and guns lined along the spine of that ridge going out of sight to the north. Chamberlain gathered strength, limping along the ridge, tucking himself in under his soft black hat, out of the sun.
The lieutenant who was their guide was a dapper young man named Pitzer, who liked to gossip, to show that he was privy to great secrets. He had a runny nose and he sneezed repeatedly but seemed to be enjoying himself. He pointed out the place where the First Minnesota had made the charge that had the whole army talking. Three hundred men had charged, under Hancock's direction; only forty had come back. But they had broken a Reb assault, giving reserves time to get up. Chamberlain thought: their casualties much worse than mine. In a fight, it always seems that your fight is the hardest. Must remember that.
What happened to them was much worse than what happened to us.
Pitzer said conversationally, "We very nearly retreated this morning."
"Retreated? Why?" Chamberlain was aghast.
"Meade wanted to pull the whole army out. Had a meeting of corps commanders last night. He really did." Pitzer sneezed emphatically. "Damn ragweed.
Happens every sum-" He exploded again, plucked out a bright red handkerchief, wiped his nose, his wheezy eye, grinned. "Meade wrote an order for the whole army to withdraw, then held a meeting of corps commanders and asked for a vote. This army is great for meetings. Colonel. Old Sedgewick did the right thing. He fell asleep." Pitzer chuckled. "Old Uncle John, you can count on him. He voted, then he fell asleep."
"What was the vote?"
"Well, hell, all the corps commanders voted to stay. I mean the only one felt like pulling out was Meade. General Meade," he added thoughtfully, eyeing Chamberlain. Never knew how to take these civilian colonels. "It was unanimous. Meade had 'em write it out, so it's all on record. I was watching through a window, saw the whole thing, even old Sedgewick asleep. Now there's an officer.
Him and Hancock." Pitzer shook his head admiringly, wheezing. "Hancock was something to behold. He says they'll come again one more time and we ought to be right here waiting."
"He says they'll come again? Hancock?"
"Yep."
"Where did he say they'd come?"
Pitzer grinned, pointed, wheezed. "Why, Colonel, right about here." They were moving higher up the crest of the hill. They were coming out on a long space of open ground along the crest before a grove of trees, the Cemetery. Down across the field there was a small farmhouse surrounded by horses,