by John Jakes
George squatted and reached up under his right trouser leg to scratch. He discovered a tick and pried it loose. “I have trouble believing it myself. Hazard the self-preservation specialist was ready to turn Arnesen down. But then I thought of all the things that fat bastard did at the Point, and I said to myself, if our men are shot down, it ought to be the Mexicans who are responsible, not our own officers.”
“You’re beginning to sound like me. Just before you got here I was telling a couple of my noncoms that Pillow should be removed. Did you hear about him bungling his assignment this morning?”
“No.”
“He willfully marched into the wrong position on the left. As a result, his troops were exposed to the fire of three enemy batteries, instead of one. Then Pillow started yelling orders so loudly, the Mexicans knew exactly where he was. They opened fire with everything they had.”
George uttered a weary obscenity. “What do you expect of a political general? Pillow I can’t do anything about. Bent, though—that’s different.”
“What are you going to do?”
“First, talk to my captain. Tell him I intend to support Arnesen’s story. I can’t testify to what happened in Arnesen’s platoon, but I can sure as hell speak with authority about Bent’s character and past history. As the sergeant said—if there’s any justice in this army, the divisional staff will listen. Of course”—he looked hard at his friend—“two officers would be more convincing than one.”
“I had a feeling you were about to ask me to go with you.”
“Will you?”
Without hesitation, Orry said, “Yes.” He yawned. “But in the morning.”
“I’m shocked,” Captain Hoctor said. “No, worse than that. I’m appalled.”
George glanced at Orry standing beside him, pleased that his opening statements had produced such a strong reaction. “I’m encouraged to hear you say that, sir,” he told Hoctor. “Bent’s behavior really is—”
“I was not speaking of Captain Bent’s behavior. I was referring to yours. Frankly, I cannot believe that one Academy graduate would impugn the ability, the motives—the fitness—of another. Furthermore, did no one ever tell either of you gentlemen that a commander is supposed to send his men against enemy positions, no matter how strongly fortified they are—no matter how impossible the odds?”
For a moment George felt dizzy. “Yes, sir, of course. And on the surface Captain Bent did no more than that. But there are other aspects. Questions of character, of—”
“Of his past actions,” Orry put in. “Doesn’t the charge have to be judged against those, too?”
Hoctor’s look was withering. “I have never read any regulation to that effect, Lieutenant. My point stands. I cannot believe you gentlemen would be parties to such a vicious accusation when the reputation of the Academy—perhaps its very survival—is dependent upon public and congressional opinion of its graduates.”
In a strained voice, George said, “Sir, may I respectfully ask what the Academy has to do with any of this? Sergeant Arnesen will swear that Captain Bent all but committed murder. Bent’s platoon sergeant questioned the order, and for that Bent sent him to be killed too. The sergeant has witnesses, and they are ready to testify in support of every—”
“You said that already, Lieutenant.” The captain’s tone was scathing.
“Sorry, sir. I forgot.” George tugged at his collar. “But I strongly believe there is a case and evidence of guilt. Lieutenant Main and I are willing to offer background information. There’s no shortage of it. You must have learned about Monterrey—”
“Of course. Brave officers are always the targets of the less courageous.” Hoctor’s expression suggested that he was now including George in the latter group.
“I beg your pardon, sir,” Orry said. “I think there’s a distinction to be made. Let me use Captain Lee of the engineers as an example. I haven’t heard a single officer or enlisted man question his courage. He demonstrated bravery at Cerro Gordo through personal action, not by throwing good men into hopeless situations. Bent, on the other hand—”
“That’s enough,” Hoctor interrupted. “You have made your point, both of you. Let me ask you a question.” A note of threat had entered his voice. “Do you really intend to pursue this matter through formal channels?”
George didn’t blink. “Yes, sir.” Orry gave the same reply.
“I assume, sir,” George added, “that when I write my formal report for division, you will receive it and send it along.”
The fire in Hoctor’s eyes was hot now. His voice was barely audible. “Contrary to the judgment I seem to detect in your words and your manner, Lieutenant, I am not a dishonorable man.”
“Sir, I never meant to suggest—”
“Permit me to finish. Of course I would not hold or bury your report. My duty as an officer wouldn’t allow it. However, that does not mean I approve of your course of action. I abominate it. If we are now clear on that—get out of here.”
Feeling he had won a victory, if a rather dangerous one, George returned to the field hospital that night to inform Sergeant Arnesen. When he reached the foot of the sergeant’s bed, he stopped and stared witlessly. A young private with blond fuzz on his cheeks was lying in Arnesen’s place.
George’s gut began to ache. He pivoted, frantically searched the shadows where men stirred and moaned softly. An orderly came hurrying along with a reeking basin.
“Sergeant Arnesen? He died on the table last night. Most of ’em do when the surgeons get hold of ’em.”
The fuzz-cheeked soldier was watching with puzzled, bleary eyes. The orderly rushed on. George could think of only one thing.
He never told me the names of the other witnesses.
Despite apprehensions, George went back to Captain Hoctor to inform him of this latest development and to say that he still intended to prepare his report.
“Have you completely lost your mind, Lieutenant? Every shred of evidence concerning the death of this Lieutenant Cummins is hearsay, and now you can’t even produce the source of that! The sergeant is dead, you don’t know the identities of his alleged witnesses—drop the matter.”
“I could make inquiries. Try to learn the names of—”
“Do that and you’ll get no help from me. This has gone far enough. Too far, in my opinion.”
The message behind the words was clear. George’s report, if he went ahead with it, would be blocked, permanently filed, perhaps even destroyed. Still, conscience drove him to a final effort:
“Sir, Captain Bent is not a stable person. He’s committed a wrong, he’s dangerous, and he should be removed from—”
Hoctor jumped up. “I will hear no more. Even granting a grain of truth in your assertions, do you seriously believe Bent is the only bad officer—or the worst one—in the Army? Haven’t you heard the accusations they’re making about that hack Gideon Pillow? Captain Bent is, at very least, an Academy man, and so are we, and your friend Main as well. God knows why the two of you are unable to comprehend the meaning of that bond—or the responsibility it places upon you. But for the sake of your careers, I hope you and Lieutenant Main will reach that understanding very soon. Dismissed.”
“Captain Hoctor—”
Scarlet rushed into Hoctor’s face. “Dismissed!”
Humiliated, George left.
“Well, that’s a nasty lesson,” Orry said when his friend described the scene. “West Point protects its own. I reckon we should have guessed it from Hector’s remarks the first time.” He sighed. “At least Bent won’t know we tried to rob him of his laurels and do him in.”
“You think not? I made Hoctor furious. In his eyes we’re the dangerous ones. I’ll wager Captain Butcher Bent will soon know exactly what we wanted to do. Hell, I bet Hoctor tells him. After all”—George grimaced—“West Point protects its own.”
When the realization sank in, Orry was unable to say a word.
Soon after, George again wrote to Cons
tance. The opening paragraphs of the letter said:
I have never felt so tired, although I think that is a state induced not merely by lack of sleep but by my revulsion toward this war. Death, injury, filth, eternal fear—an army of incompetents, poltroons, political cronies, and victims—always there are the victims whom the others send to slaughter in their stead—this is the “glory” by which Orry is seduced. When will he discover the “glory” is nothing but a layer of gilt desperately applied to conceal the rot beneath? For his own sake, I hope the enlightenment comes before he commits his life to military service. But sometimes lately, my dearest, I am too tired even to care much about my best friend’s fate.
What fills my nights and days, sustaining me as nothing else can, is the thought of our being reunited one day, with nothing more fearful ahead of us than the ordinary vicissitudes of a life together. I am not a deeply religious person, but I have found myself praying for that reunion constantly of late. They do say God makes many converts on battlefields, a statement which I am beginning to understand at last.
The conditions about which I write have been made all the worse by my recent failure to rectify a criminally unjust situation. I tried to do so, mind you, but
All at once he glanced back over what he had written. Disgusted he realized he had been thinking only of himself when he poured out his grim thoughts. If he added to her worries, he deserved to be whipped. He picked up the sheets and crumpled them. It was the one letter penned in Mexico that he never sent.
12
A SHELL WHINED IN over the highroad to Churubusco. The Mexican gunners in the convent of San Mateo had found the range. So had those on the fortified bridge that carried the road over the Rio Churubusco and on into Mexico City.
Sword in his left hand, pistol in his right, Orry crouched in the marshy cornfield beside the road. He cringed as he awaited the explosion of the shell. The concussion nearly knocked him over.
To his left, a geyser shot up from the wet field, lifting cornstalks and bloody heads and limbs with it. It was mid-afternoon, the twentieth of August. Orry had been in heavy fighting for nearly three hours and had thought himself numb to sights of violent death. The disappearance of an entire squad of men when the shell hit showed him how foolish he’d been. He gagged as the human remains splattered back to earth.
Choking smoke stung his eyes. He could barely discern the spires of the Mexican capital and the snowy summit of Popocatepetl through the murk. He searched for familiar faces but saw none among the milling mobs in the cornfield.
On the highroad he heard hoarse commands; an attempt was being made to re-form Worth’s division there. Having overcome and routed the garrison at San Antonio, the division had been racing toward Churubusco when devastating fire from the convent and the bridge drove it off the road into the field.
A stocky figure came lurching out of the smoke, teeth clenched and face barely recognizable under a layer of dirt. Orry laughed in a wild, ragged way and wigwagged his arms.
“George. George, here!”
George staggered toward him. Noncoms and officers ran past, most bound for the road but some going the other way. “I’ve lost sight of the colors,” Orry gasped.
“I’ve lost all my men,” George shouted back. “When the crossfire started, the whole division just seemed to melt. But I saw Captain Smith of the Fifth heading for the road to reorganize—Jesus Christ. Down!”
He pushed Orry face forward into the muck. Orry swallowed a mouthful of the foul stuff, but that was better than being ravaged by the charges of canister that blew apart and sent a thousand deadly bits of metal hissing through the corn.
They waited for a lull in the artillery bombardment; then, bent over and running side by side, they started for the highroad. Musket fire from the bridge and the firing platforms in the convent was almost constant. George encountered eight of his men along the way; they were lost, confused, frightened.
With George in the lead, they climbed the embankment near a crossroad where some adobe cottages stood. The walls were pocked by American and Mexican balls, and two rooftops were afire. Everywhere officers were shouting, trying to organize squads or platoons of men, any men available. Orry saw unfamiliar faces and the insignia of units that didn’t belong on this part of the battlefield.
He took his cue from the other officers. “Form up, form up in squads!” he shouted, seizing running men and hurling them into a line at the edge of the road. He caught about twenty, but half of them immediately ran toward the rear. George threatened the others with his pistol.
“I’ll shoot the next man who bolts.”
That held them for about thirty seconds. Then everyone in the little group dove off the road. A shell blew a huge hole in the center. In the rain of dirt and debris falling afterward, Orry again started to climb the embankment. He found his foot mired in something wet. I thought all the water was in the cornfield. He looked down. His foot was planted in the warm red cavity that had been a man’s gut. He wrenched backward and gagged again, but there was nothing left to come up.
Someone pushed him from behind. He swore, then realized it was George trying to get him away from the corpse. They regained the road and began re-forming their group. Four had been killed.
Suddenly uniformed men came running from the direction of the fortified bridge. Americans. “We’ve been repulsed,” they screamed, and raced on by.
A figure in the smoke at Orry’s left glided toward him. “Perhaps we’d better reconnoiter and find out whether that’s true, gentlemen.”
Orry’s jaw dropped. George was equally stupefied. Dirty, disheveled, greasy with sweat, Elkanah Bent faced them with sword and revolver in either hand. Orry lost his last doubt that the fellow was mad when he saw Bent smiling—smiling—in the midst of this hell of musket and artillery fire.
Bent gestured to the little squad huddling nearby. “Lieutenant Main, take those men and bring me a report on the situation at the river.” His small eyes flicked to George. “Go with them, Lieutenant Hazard.”
“Godamighty, Bent, do you know what you’re saying? There’s no way a squad can get far enough down that road to see—”
Bent cocked his revolver and pointed it at George. More men ran by, staring. But they didn’t stop to ask the reason for the bizarre scene. It looked as if the fat captain might be disciplining a couple of cowardly subordinates.
“Bring me a report or I’ll shoot you for disobeying a direct order in action.”
Orry’s hand clenched on the hilt of his sword. He fought an impulse to run Bent through and let his own life be forfeit. Bent sensed it and swung the revolver to cover him.
George laid a hand on Orry’s arm. They both knew Bent meant for them to die. George winked quickly and jerked his head toward the bridge, as if to say, That way we stand a chance; here we have none.
With their backs to the fat captain, they stood close together, surveying the highroad. About a quarter of a mile beyond the junction stood two other cottages, apparently deserted.
“Let’s advance to those,” George whispered. “Once we take cover inside, he won’t be able to get at us. Then we can plan our next move.”
For an instant Orry was lost to reality. “I’m going to kill him.” He repeated it twice in a monotonous voice. George gripped Orry’s left arm and applied pressure as hard as he could. In a moment Orry winced, blinked, and collected himself. George shouted the command to advance. Orry shambled forward with the others.
They had taken no more than a dozen steps away from the cottages at the junction when a musket barrel came smashing through an unbroken window in one of the cottages ahead. The door flew open; three more muskets poked out. The muskets boomed, killing two of the surprised soldiers a yard to Orry’s left.
George shouted for everyone to go into the ditches again. Two more men fell before they reached the edge of the road. George was suddenly incoherent with rage. He looked back, saw Elkanah Bent gesturing to a major of mounted rifles. God knew ho
w the major and his horse had gotten to this little corner of hell. Feeling just as Orry had earlier, George started for Bent. He had made up his mind. Regardless of the consequences, he was going to murder the swine on the spot.
A scream brought him to a stop. It sounded like Orry, and there was something terrifying about it. George peered through the smoke as the screaming intensified, a crescendo of sound.
It wasn’t a cry of pain but of berserk anger. Orry was charging down the center of the road, brandishing his sword as he uttered that wild yell. It unnerved the stunned guerrillas hiding in the cottage. For several moments, none of them shot at the figure rushing toward them. By the time they realized they’d better, Orry was two yards from the door.
The first musket ball missed him. The second sent his forage cap sailing. He reached the door, kicked it wide open, and jumped into the dark interior, still yelling and swinging his sword.
George saw Bent and the mounted rifle officer watching with amazed expressions. Shrieks issued from the cottage. They might be Orry’s. George bent low and began to run forward to help his friend.
Three of the men he had assembled clambered up the embankment and followed, their bayonets stirring the smoke ahead of them. In front of George and to the left, a shell hit. He shut his eyes to protect them from flying dirt, cut to the right, and kept running. The shrieking didn’t stop; the cottage sounded like a slaughterhouse.
Suddenly two Mexicans in grimy clothing burst through the door. Two others hurled themselves out through a broken window. Orry appeared in the doorway, his sword dripping. He held something in his left hand—some piece of a human being—that he mercifully flung behind him before George could identify it.
The soldiers bayoneted the guerrillas attempting to flee. George raced toward his friend, but before he could say anything, he heard another shell coming in. Very fast, very loud.
He gestured wildly. “Orry, get out of th—”
The shell burst. The cottage flew apart in hundreds of pieces. Dirt and debris mushroomed upward in a roiling cloud. George blinked and choked, conscious of pain in his chest. He was lying on the road and didn’t even remember throwing himself down.