“Possibly, but that would have meant absenting myself from my troop for two days while I herded an invalid and his supporter back to our barracks. The process would have been slow and I did not have rations to feed them.”
“I understand your dilemma, sir. In retrospect it was probably the only thing to do if you did not wish to shoot them.”
The captain left his office but Daniel noticed that he went to speak to Colonel Bridges, no doubt to double-check the story of the two raiders.
The next day a consignment of munitions arrived on board a train that had somehow been overlooked by the rebels. General Grant seized the opportunity to distribute the munitions among those companies that had delivered their own stocks to Major General Butler’s forces and then ordered an immediate march with the intention of facing up to Lee’s army to allow Butler to penetrate closer to Richmond.
Lee kept them in play knowing that they were not abundantly supplied with ammunition. He blocked Butler from progressing along the James river and Sigel found that Lynchburg was too well defended for him to reach the railroad line.
Grant was left alone to fight an overland campaign against a well-supplied Lee.
Daniel was no longer a fighting soldier as regimental executive officer. He watched the finest men of the regiment throw themselves against Confederate steel and lead and be returned as corpses and casualties. Field promotions became the order of the day and horses were desperately required. Daniel struggled hard to provide the needs of the regiment to the extent that he had Jack staying away from the fighting but collecting every stray horse that he could find. After two weeks of unceasing battle, the bad news came that Colonel Bridges had been wounded and was unable to lead the regiment.
Daniel reported to his Brigadier who gave him short shrift.
“Major, I have no more officers to give you. You will have to lead the regiment yourself. I shall send you a brevet order to act as lieutenant colonel. How many active men have you now?”
Daniel found himself in charge of the regiment and also operating as executive officer. Every one of the majors had either been killed or wounded so most companies were being run by lieutenants and Captains Hamilton and Younger were the highest ranking unwounded officers. Bill Hamilton was not executive officer material so Daniel had to use Brad Younger in that capacity. Brad was not by nature a cavalry officer so he was not a great loss to the fighting forces. Daniel put Bill Hamilton in charge of the cavalry and almost immediately regretted it because Bill wanted to charge everything. He did not care whether it was grapeshot or massed rifles he wanted to charge and Daniel spent a lot of time holding him back.
The situation became a war of attrition as both sides suffered enormous casualties. As cavalry does not dig in and shelter against cannon shot and rifle fire, every action resulted in regimental shrinkage. Even though the cavalry was not sent in except for flanking movements when the light cannon that Brad Younger had asked for showed their worth, surprise only last for a few minutes before the enemy started to shoot back and the regimental butcher’s bill began to climb.
“Where in hell are the reinforcements that I asked for?” Was the complaint from every battalion.
“Colonel Daniels,” General Meade said to Daniel after summoning him to his tent. “You are to take command of the Brigade. Brigadier Anderson is critically wounded. Your brevet order is here. I am holding a meeting at six this evening. General Grant will address us then.”
Daniel hardly had time to advise his staff of his unwanted advancement when it was time for the scheduled meeting.
“Gentlemen, Lee is between us and Richmond. It is my intention to drive a wedge between his forces and Richmond by moving to take Spotsylvania. Prepare yourselves for this. I am waiting for reinforcements and munitions which should be here in the next few days. The cavalry brigades will move first since they move quickly. Once we have established a bridgehead, the infantry will fill in. I do not want to see any signs that we are moving or being prepared to move. Lee’s forces watch every move we make just as we watch theirs. When we move we do so at night and we leave the camp undisturbed. Injured men will keep campfires burning and stand guard as if the army were still in place. Your orders may be collected from the sergeant at the tent entrance. Any questions?”
The usual number of questions indicating a lack of comprehension or just plain stupidity followed but Daniel was already collecting his orders.
Chapter Twenty Five
Daniel thought deeply about the problem of getting Grant’s plan to Lee. There was no way that he could cable a coded message to Boston that could get to Lee in the field in time before Grant ordered the move.
Suddenly the thought came to him. There were as many Confederate officers lying on the battlefields as there were Union officers.
He sat down and quickly encoded a message setting out Grant’s intentions regarding Spotsylvania then he called Jack.
“Jack do you know the rank insignia of Confederate officers?”
“Yes, sir,” Jack could not keep up with Daniel’s rapid changes in status so he had taken to calling him ‘sir’. “I have seen them many times.”
“I want you to wait until dark then sneak onto today’s battlefield. Find the highest ranking Confederate officer’s body and place this message in a pocket.”
“Yes sir, but the man will not be able to read it he will be dead.”
“The Confederates will come looking for their officers and take the bodies away for burial. If they find a coded message on the body they will pass it on to the intelligence section for decoding.”
“Ah, I understand but what if I am arrested on the battlefield? Looting is not permitted.”
“You play your usual ‘no understand English’ routine. They won’t find any loot on you so they will not have the right to shoot you. Just make sure that you drop the message before they get to you.”
“Yes sir. I can do that.”
Jack returned a few hours later.
“How did it go?”
“The battlefield was covered with looters. I did not see anyone shot for it. They robbed the senior officers first so I had no trouble placing the note in the pocket of a general.”
“Well done, Jack. They are sure to find that. They will feel the paper and think that it is currency.”
It happened just as Daniel had predicted. The body was collected and taken to a field mortuary where the general was put to one side. Someone felt the paper and took it out. Even mortuary attendant understand what code is, so the note was passed to the intelligence section where it was translated and passed to General Lee.
Lee chuckled. “I see that they have made my boy up to Brigadier. He is doing a wonderful job for both sides!”
Lee moved immediately and dug himself in at Spotsylvania.
Grant threw his army at Spotsylvania only to find that he had been beaten to the punch resulting in a battle that lasted thirteen days and resulted in many casualties on both sides.
Knowing that Lee would be in place in Spotsylvania, Daniel had delayed his brigade as much as possible and avoided losing too many lives. Far from reflecting badly upon Daniel his minimal losses were regarded as the result of careful and proper planning, which, in a sense, was true.
He was taken completely by surprise when he was summoned into General Grant’s presence and was asked to take a seat.
Grant said: “Brigadier, General Robert E Lee is one of the finest generals that this country has ever produced. I have thrown everything I have at him and still, despite shortages of materiel and manpower, he still holds me in check. I am now proposing a two way assault upon him to bring this war to a conclusion. The first is that we have to produce capable fighting men quicker and better than he can and the second is we must do everything we can to diminish his forces by encouraging them to leave him and join us or at th
e very least to quit and go home. We can accomplish the second item by making life in his ranks as uncomfortable as possible: cut off their supplies and block their payrolls. The first item is where you come in, sir. You are the general officer with the most practical experience of this war. You have survived more battles and what is even more important you have conserved your men better than any other living brigadier I have encountered. Therefore I am ordering you, indeed I am requesting you, to take charge of the task of recruiting and training capable fighting men quicker and better than General Lee can. I need those men in the shortest time possible. You may request whatever facilities you require.”
“From where do these men come, sir?” Daniel asked.
“They will come from every school and college in the United States of America. I have requested universal enlistment of all able-bodied men above the age of seventeen.”
“General, when will you need them?”
“I need them immediately and expect a continual stream of capable troops and Brigadier, I want infantrymen and artillerymen, not cavalry. Am I clear?”
“Yessir.”
Daniel went north immediately taking with him Jack and Sergeant Major Jock Macpherson. He also sent a coded message to Lee informing him of the new situation.
Arabella wrote a letter to Daniel after he had gone north. Not knowing that he had been re-deployed, she sent it to his brigade. The letter passed through normal channels and reached the postal tent of the brigade where it stayed awaiting re-direction until the tent was struck by a badly aimed cannon ball that overturned the kerosene lamp. The tent was burned out and one of the letters completely destroyed was that of Arabella.
Daniel was never to know that she was pregnant with his child.
Daniel devised a basic training system to turn out capable troops in six weeks: fitness by exercise, obedience to commands and rifle-handling and firing. Sergeant Major Jock Macpherson had oversight of the training operations conducted by experienced sergeants that Daniel had to steal from regiments under a barrage of complaints and screams of outrage from their colonels.
General Grant was not satisfied with the volumes of troops he was receiving but he did commend Daniel on the quality of troops that were being delivered.
Grant threw the new troops into the fray immediately but was unable to break through Lee’s lines to capture Petersburg. For Grant one good thing came of this, the fresh troops became hardened and were capable of pushing westward to overstretch Lee’s entrenchments and in April 1865 he captured Richmond.
Lee reluctantly surrendered the Army of Virginia to Grant following many desertions from his ranks and facing the endless line of reinforcements that Grant was receiving.
Daniel was summoned to Grant, who by that time was known as Butcher Grant having sacrificed over sixty thousand of Daniel’s fresh troops to the war effort.
“Brigadier Daniels, thanks to your efforts we have been able to bring this war to a conclusion.” Grant congratulated him. Then he said ruefully, “Of course it has not helped my reputation having now been dubbed ‘Butcher Grant’ by the press. I am going to have to do something really spectacular to win back their respect.”
“Sir, why not offer generous terms to the Confederates? Surrender of weapons and immediate release on condition of taking an oath never to take arms against the US again? It is the only way to restoring the entire country to normality as quickly as possible.”
“Excellent idea Daniels, say, how would you like to stay with me on my staff?”
“Sir, I greatly appreciate your offer but I have had my fill of war and I have no desire for public life. I would like to take the same option that you will be offering the Confederates: the right to go home and never to take up arms again.”
“Brigadier, your country owes you at least that much. I’ll send you your discharge papers and I wish you well in your future endeavors but if you ever change your mind there will be a place for you at my side.”
Chapter Twenty Six
Daniel rode away from his army duties with no regrets. Sergeant Major Jock Macpherson decided to stay on in the US Army but Jack still followed Daniel loyally.
He rode back to see Arabella Boulder but he heard that she and her husband had returned to the Fairfield Plantation and now had a child. He decided to leave well enough alone. He knew that Arabella would leave Bartholomew Boulder for him in a heartbeat but that would not be fair to the child and anyway he was not certain that he was ready for marriage in his early twenties.
He decided to head back to Texas where he hoped to buy a property at the depressed post-war prices and raise cattle.
He took a riverboat down to New Orleans from where he intended to start his journey west.
Gambling on board was in full swing when he and Jack embarked.
Daniel went into the saloon where he found several games in progress all of them with at least one professional gambler at each table.
He chose to watch the game with the highest stakes where they were playing five card stud instead of the draw poker on one other table.
He watched the cards for two hours before a player retired and Daniel took his chair. Straight off, he was dealt four aces with one showing alongside a queen. The dealer was a professional gambler named Cajun and although Daniel had been watching for two hours and the man had dealt many times in that period, Daniel had not noticed him to be manipulating the cards.
Daniel checked the cards with the other players and noted that although everyone was showing promising cards, they were not in the order that he had memorized. Now, that could be because the man was an exceptionally thorough shuffler or it could be that he was on this occasion manipulating the cards.
Daniel had a rule when playing cards: you only bet when you have a fair idea what everyone else had in their hands. That had been his father’s failing. His father had taught Daniel how to memorize cards and all the techniques needed to win a poker session, not a poker game. Where his father went consistently wrong is that he used to drink while he played and the longer the play lasted the more he consumed. As the play drew to a close, he got reckless and forgot his own rules.
Daniel threw in his hand and he caught the quick flash of surprise on the professional’s face as Daniel took a sip from the water glass at his side.
Acting with a sense of mischief, Daniel ostentatiously moved his holster around so that his pistol was more accessible. He saw this move register with Cajun and the man’s face went pale.
Judging by the two clubs showing in front of Cajun, he was ready to clear the board with a straight flush but under Daniel’s close scrutiny and aware of the ready pistol, Cajun decided that discretion was definitely the better part of valor. He did not push up the pot, threw in his hand after the second round and the game went to the player with three kings and two fours.
Shortly after that Cajun took his winnings and left the table. Daniel had a good session coming away with eight hundred dollars.
After a long and heavy session in the tobacco smoke-filled saloon, Daniel took a stroll out on the promenade deck. He turned at the end of the deck to find himself very nearly colliding with a very lovely girl in a lacy gown with matching lace-trimmed parasol.
“I beg pardon, ma’am. I did not know you were there.”
Her large eyes flashed with annoyance and she said in Spanish to a more mature woman beside her:
“These Americans are all boors! They walk around as if they own the world.”
Daniel bowed to her and said in the same language: “Senorita, My apologies for not having eyes in back of my head. I know that you think that us Americans are monsters but even we are not as malformed as that!”
She turned on her heel and walked stiffly away with her companion pausing to make conciliatory gestures of apology to Daniel.
Daniel watched them as they walk
ed away. The girl had a lovely figure and her lustrous black hair fell down her back in thick blue-black folds. He found her overwhelmingly attractive.
He returned to the saloon and played poker until dinner time coming away with another six hundred dollars. He noticed that the man named Cajun had not come back to the tables.
As he had taken a first class cabin, he was invited to sit at the Captain’s table with the seven other first class passengers. He found himself sitting opposite the Spanish girl and her duenna with Cajun alongside him.
The captain said: “Is there anyone here who speaks Spanish fluently? Miss Rozas and her companion are fresh out from Spain and do not speak English very well.”
“I do captain. I am Daniel Beauregard travelling to New Orleans.”
The captain bowed to the two Spanish women and did his best to introduce Daniel to the ladies. He then presented Daniel to the man seated beside him.
“Colonel Chambertin-Écossais may I present to you Mister Daniel Beauregard.”
The Colonel lowered his eyes as he shook Daniel’s hand. “My name is a bit of a mouthful sir, most people call me Cajun since I am an Acadian.”
“I go by Dan, sir and I am delighted to meet you.”
They sat down and Daniel spoke in Spanish to the vision of loveliness before him.
“Senorita, I hope that we may place our earlier meeting behind us with my sincere apologies if I offended you in any way at all. Did I understand correctly that you have just arrived in America?”
The duenna replied. “Senor, we accept your apology and acknowledge that the fault was not entirely yours. We have been in the United States of America for two months now. We were delayed by your war, which God be praised, has now ended. My niece is traveling to Laredo to meet her betrothed after which they shall move to Monterrey in Mexico. I myself will return to Spain from Mexico once my little Teresita has become the Senora de Tudo y Alemany. What part of America do you come from Senor to be able to speak such good Spanish?”
The Texican Way Page 19