Killer Angels, The - Michael Shaara [6]
Sorrel sat, gazing curiously, distastefully at the spy.
The spy guzzled, then sniffed Longstreet's fragrant smoke. Wistfully: "I say.
General, I don't suppose you've got another of those? Good Southern tobacco?"
"Directly," Longstreet said. "What have you got?"
"I've got the position of the Union Army."
Longstreet nodded, showing nothing. He had not known the Union Army was on the move, was within two hundred miles, was even this side of the Potomac, but he nodded and said nothing. The spy asked for a map and began pointing out the positions of the corps.
"They're coming in seven corps. I figure at least eighty thousand men, possibly as much as a hundred thousand.
When they're all together they'll outnumber you, but they're not as strong as they were; the two-year enlistments are running out. The First Corps is here.
The Eleventh is right behind it. John Reynolds is in command of the lead elements. I saw him at Taneytown this morning."
"Reynolds," Longstreet said.
"Yes, sir."
"You saw him yourself?"
The spy grinned, nodded, rubbed his nose, chuckled.
"So close I could touch him. It was Reynolds all right."
"This morning. At Taneytown."
"Exactly. You didn't know any of that, now did you, General?" The spy bobbed his head with delight. "You didn't even know they was on the move, did ye? I thought not. You wouldn't be spread out so thin if you knowed they was comin'."
Longstreet looked at Sorrel. The aide shrugged silently If this was true, there would have been some word. Longstreet's mind moved over it slowly He said: "How did you know we were spread out?"
"I smelled it out." The spy grinned, fox-like, toothy "Listen, General, I'm good at this business."
"Tell me what you know of our position."
"Well, now I can't be too exact on this, 'cause I aint scouted you myself, but I gather that you're spread from York up to Harrisburg and then back to Chambersburg, with the main body around Chambersburg and General Lee just
'round the bend."
It was exact. Longstreet thought: if this one knows it, they will know it. He said slowly, "We've had no word of Union movement."
The spy bobbed with joy "I knew it. Thass why I hurried. Came through that picket line in the dark and all. I don't know if you realize, General-"
Sorrell said coldly, "Sir, don't you think, if this man's story was true, that we would have heard something?"
Sorrel did not approve of spies. The spy grimaced, blew.
"You aint exactly on friendly ground no more. Major. This aint Virginia no more."
True, Longstreet thought. But there would have been something. Stuart?
Longstreet said, "General Stuart's cavalry went out a few days back. He hasn't reported any movement."
The spy shrugged, exasperated, glooming at Sorrel.
Sorrel turned his back, looked at his fingernails.
Longstreet said, "What have you heard of Stuart?"
"Not much. He's riding in the north somewhere. Stirring up headlines and fuss, but I never heard him do any real damage."
Longstreet said, "If the Union Army were as close as you say, one would think-" "Well, I'm damned," the spy said, a small rage flaming.
"I come through that picket line in the dark and all. Listen, General, I tell you this: I don't know what old Stuart is doing and I don't care, but I done my job and this is a fact.
This here same afternoon of this here day I come on the tracks of Union cavalry thick as fleas, one whole brigade and maybe two, and them bluebellies weren't no four hours hard ride from this here now spot, and that, by God, is the Lord's truth." He blew again, meditating. Then he added, by way of amendment, "Buford's column, I think it was. To be exact."
Longstreet thought: can't be true. But he was an instinctive man, and suddenly his brain knew and his own temper boiled. Jeb Stuart... was joyriding. God damn him. Longstreet turned to Sorrel.
"All right. Major. Send to General Lee. I guess we'll have to wake him up. Get my horse."
Sorrel started to say something, but he knew that you did not argue with Longstreet. He moved.
The spy said delightedly,