Killer Angels, The - Michael Shaara [84]
The joke about breastworks. Oh God, let's go.
The same officer, back from Hood. The face was wary, the voice was firm,
"General Hood begs to report, sir, that the enemy has his left flank in the air. He requests your presence, sir, or that of General Lee. He begs to inform you that in his opinion it would be most unwise to attack up the Emmitsburg Road. The ground is very bad and heavily defended. Whereas if we move to the rear, sir, there is no defense all. The enemy has uncovered the Rocky Hill."
Longstreet said, "Tell General Hood..." Then he thought: they uncovered the Rocky Hill. McLaws has troops in front of him. Good God. They aren't back on the ridge at all; they've moved forward. He took out the map he had drawn of the position, tried to visualize it.
The Union Army was supposed to be up on the ridge. But it wasn't. It was down in the peach orchard.
He stared at the map again.
So Hood had found an opening to the right. Of course.
Longstreet stared again at his watch. Almost four. Lee was miles away. If I go to him now... He saw again the grave gray face, the dark reproachful eyes. Too late.
Well, Longstreet thought. Lee wants a frontal assault. I guess he'll have one.
He turned to the messenger.
"Tell General Hood to attack as ordered."
McLaws and Barksdale came up together. Barksdale was breathing deeply, face pale, ready for the fight. He said, "When do we go in?"
"In a while, in a while."
There was a cannon to the right. The beginning? No. Hood was probing with his batteries. Longstreet extracted another cigar. The supply was low. Calmly he told Goree to go get some more. He looked up to see Harry Sellars. Hood's AG.
Longstreet thought: Sellars is a good man, the best he has. Hood's trying to impress me. The cannon boomed. Sellars started talking. Longstreet said gently, "Harry, I'm sorry."
Sellars said, his voice touched with desperation, "General, will you look at the ground? We can't even mount artillery."
"All right." Longstreet decided to ride with him. Time was running out. Even now, if Lee attacked en echelon, some of the brigades could not attack before dark, unless everything went very smoothly, and it would not go smoothly, not today. Longstreet rode, listening to Sellars, thinking: when you study war it's all so clear. Everybody knows all the movements. General So and So should have done such and such. God knows we all try. We none of us lose battles on purpose. But now on this field what can we do that's undone?
He came on Hood, preparing to move out. There was something rare in his face; a light was shining from his eyes. Longstreet had heard men talk of Hood's face in a fight, but he had not seen it; the fight had not yet begun. But Hood's eyes, normally so soft and sad, were wide and black as round coals, shining with a black heat.
Hood said, "General, the ground is strewn with boulders.
They are dug in all over the ground and there are guns in the rocks above.
Every move I make is observed. If I attack as ordered I will lose half my Division, and they will still be looking down our throats from that hill. We must move to the right."
Longstreet said nothing. He looked down; through thick woods he could begin to see the boulders, great boulders tall as houses, piled one upon another like the wreckage of a vast explosion.
Hood said, "How can you mount cannon in that?"
Longstreet: "Sam..." He shook his head. He thought of it again. No. Too late.
I cannot go against Lee. Not again. He said, "Sam, the Commanding General will not approve a move to the right. I argued it yesterday. I argued it all morning. Hell, I've been arguing against any attack at all. How can I call this one off? We have our orders. Go on in. We're waiting on you."
Hood stared at him with the black round eyes. Longstreet felt an overwhelming wave of sadness. They're all going in to die. But he could say nothing. Hood stared at him.
Hood: "Let me move to the right, up the Round Hill. If I could get a battery up there..."
Longstreet shook his head. "Not enough time. You'd have to cut trees; it would be dark