Assuming all went well, and Mack never made such assumptions, by dawn on April 17th the task force should be in control of the James River Gap from Glasgow to Big Island, which had been designated Objective Hilo. Big Island wasn’t actually an island, but a riverside community named for an island just upriver. The town was one of the few places along the James River Gap that had the open fields they needed to accommodate a helicopter landing field and logistical base. The task force headquarters company, the field trains of the regiment, and the medical company, escorted by the remaining Dragoon company, would follow Route Whiskey to link up with the rest of the task force before 1200 hours on the 17th.
While all this happened, Union forces along the Rappahannock River would conduct feints at U.S. Ford and Skinker’s Neck, which were intended to keep the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia pinned near the Rappahannock River. Mack had little faith in the Union commanders, based on their performance to date in the war, as well as their historical performance in the original history of the American Civil War, so he had a third Reaper drone circling over the area. He also had a liaison team embedded with General Hooker’s headquarters, and had provided the Union Army of the Potomac with sixteen radiomen, sufficient to provide wireless communications down to corps level.
Mack had learned that there are two truths with respect to military planning. The first truth is that no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. The second truth is that the primary purpose of a plan is to provide a common point of departure. But he hadn’t expected the plan to go to shit quite so quickly. The first sign of trouble came via a radio transmission from Peta.
40 - PETA
Boomerang: a gunfire locator developed primarily for use against snipers. The unit attaches to the rear of a Gecko or Gator-RSTA combat vehicle and uses an array of seven small microphone sensors to detect and measure both the muzzle blast and the shock wave from a supersonic bullet traveling through the air. Operators receive simultaneous visual and audio information on the point of fire from an image display panel and speaker mounted inside the vehicle. An interface allows automatic laying of the vehicle’s mounted weapon system on the indicated azimuth. Glossary, An Illustrated History of the Republic, Helen O’Shea, Ed.
Glasgow, Virginia, CSA, 1300 hours, Thursday, April 16, 1863
Moving as quickly as their night vision devices would safely allow, the six Spec-Ops Geckos moved south to Romney, where they encountered the 116th Ohio’s pickets, but were allowed to pass unhindered. From Romney, Peta followed the roads along the Potomac’s South Fork until it petered out west of Harrisonburg. She continued south along the western edge of the valley until they reached the outskirts of Covington, then turned east to Clifton Forge, south to Eagle Rock, east to Natural Bridge and east towards Glasgow. Her sense of security was heightened by an armed Reaper keeping watch far overhead.
Peta had intended to quickly pass through the James River Gap, perch her Pathfinders at Observation Post Haggis, and await the Grenadiers and Dragoons. With the exception of a few commissary troops in Buena Vista, there weren’t supposed to be any Confederate units in the immediate area. What the plan hadn’t considered was the Union cavalry troop that poked a hornet’s nest outside Roanoke earlier in the day. That troop was now thundering down the north bank of the James River, desperately hoping to cross the smaller Maury River and disappear into the mountains. The Maury joined the James in Glasgow, just before the latter flows eastward into the Gap. There was a full squadron of Confederate cavalry in hot pursuit.
The progress of this running gun battle was first reported by HF radio to Peta by Reaper flight controllers at Raven’s Roost, just as the Maury River bridge came into sight. Peta immediately launched a second Skyblade drone to join the one already orbiting over the Pathfinders’ convoy, and sent it flying off to the southwest to find the approaching troopers.
The Pathfinders reached the river and quickly crossed the sturdy bridge. Seeing that the cavalry troop was fast approaching their position, Peta deployed her soldiers with two Geckos, the recoilless rifle team and one medium machine gun team north of the bridge, and one Gecko, the heavy machine gun team and another medium machine gun team directly facing the bridge. The remaining three Geckos and medium machine gun teams were deployed between the bridge and the Maury River junction with the James River. It was then that she noticed, via the Skyblade, that the Confederate cavalry squadron had a horse-drawn cannon. Son of a bitch. It was the only weapon with the range and power to really hurt her force. She made a mental note to discuss this unpleasant surprise with the Task Force intelligence officer, known as the S2, at her earliest opportunity.
Hoping to retain some tactical surprise should a larger force appear, Peta reasoned that a combination of light, medium and heavy machine guns, along with Murray’s sniper rifle and the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, would be sufficient to send the Confederate cavalry squadron scrambling. She hoped not to use the automatic grenade launchers, or call on the overhead Reaper’s arsenal. And she hoped the recoilless rifle could take out the single rebel canon before it could do any damage. Peta sent Corporals Murray and Leary to take up a sniper position on the high ridge behind them.
Watching the Union troopers approach on the Skyblade monitor, Peta focused on the apparent leader, trying to judge his competence by the way he controlled his men as they fled. Unbidden, her libido whispered. Now there’s a man that can ride a horse. She smacked herself on the back of the head. Shut up, fool. I’ve got work to do.
The land to the west side of the Maury River and north side of the James River was flat, with a farmer’s field taking up most of the space between the river and the town of Glasgow. It offered little hindrance to either the approaching Union cavalry troop or the pursuing rebels. As soon as the Confederates came within range, Corporal Murray began to pick them off one by one with his Barrett sniper rifle. By far the best shot in the Republic, maybe all of North America, he seldom missed despite the fact that his targets were moving rapidly. Soon the pursuit began to slack off, widening the gap between the Union and Confederate troops. Once there was sufficient space to provide a clear line of fire, the Pathfinders opened up on the rebels with a storm of machine gun fire.
The rebel cannon got off one round before it was destroyed. Unfortunately, that single shot plowed into Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Smith’s position. Peta saw it happen and swore viciously. Sergeant “Doc” Wilson, the Spec Ops medic, hurried over to Smith’s body. While everyone in the platoon had been trained to the combat lifesaver level, Wilson was a clinically-trained combat paramedic. But there was nothing to be done for Gunny Smith. Peta had not expected that Spec Ops would come though the war unscathed, but she certainly hadn’t expected to lose a man so quickly. Joseph had a wife back in the Republic. Telling Zahra that she’d lost her husband was going to be hell.
Meanwhile, the rebel cavalry briefly tried to form up and return fire, but got off only a single volley from well out of effective range before being driven off with heavy casualties. They retreated into Glasgow.
Satisfied that the threat had abated for the moment, Peta considered her options. If she continued down the Gap, the rebels would surely follow. On the other hand, using the river obstacle to her advantage, she could probably hold her position at the river junction, even if enemy reinforcements arrived. But that meant the task force wouldn’t have eyes on Objective Hilo. Reasoning that having an enemy cavalry squadron roaming around the gap was the worst of two evils, she composed a spot report and called up task force headquarters on the radio.
* * *
The Union lieutenant led his men across the bridge to join up with the Pathfinders. He was met by Master Sergeant Keefe. Peta listened to the exchange as she waited for headquarters to respond to her report. The lieutenant’s voice had a familiar note to it.
“Good day sir,” Keefe called as the lieutenant reined up beside his Gecko, where Keefe sat perched behind the SAW, just in case the man had got the wrong idea. “I
’m Master Sergeant Mitchell Keefe, of the Pathfinder team, Spec-Ops platoon, Task Force Javelin, Indian Stream Republican Militia.”
“Has the Republic joined the Union?” The Union officer seemed delighted at the prospect.
“Certainly not, but in light of your government’s recent recognition that all men are indeed created equal, we’ve decided to lend you a wee bit of help in the war effort,” Keefe replied. “Do you have any wounded?”
A Union sergeant had taken a count of the men while his lieutenant spoke to Keefe. He reported that of the seventy-four men the troop had started the day with, six men had minor wounds and twenty-two men were missing, either dead or captured. The troop commander was among the missing. Keefe called to Doc Wilson. The Union lieutenant got his men to dismount and set the healthy men to care for the horses while Doc examined, triaged, and began treating the wounded men.
“The Captain will join you shortly,” Keefe told the lieutenant, who had introduced himself as Luke Barns as he dismounted. “She’s busy sending a message off to our Commander.”
“I’m sorry, did you say ‘she’?” Barns asked. “Is your captain a woman?”
“Indeed, the Captain is half-Blackfoot Indian war chieftain, half-Irish school teacher, and one-hundred percent female,” replied Keefe. “She’s the smartest officer and best fighter I know-.”
“Luke?” Peta interrupted Keefe. She couldn’t believe the coincidence.
“Peta? Um, I mean Captain.” He whipped off a crisp salute.
“Don’t do that,” she barked. “We don’t salute in the field. There are too many sharpshooters looking for officers to pick off.” As if to prove the point, a Minie ball zinged overhead.
“Did the Boomerang get that?” Peta called out, referring to a system of microphones mounted on the Geckos that could pinpoint enemy fire. She stepped behind the Gecko and beckoned Luke to follow.
“Yes ma’am,” Sergeant Richard Lane answered from inside his Gecko a few moments later. “There’s two of them in the bell tower of that church in town.”
“Have Murray take them out,” she ordered. Ten seconds later they heard the crack of Murray’s sniper rifle, and looked over to see the erstwhile rebel sharpshooter tumble out of the bell tower almost a mile away. A second shot sent his companion to a similar fate.
Turning back to the lieutenant, Peta continued, “It’s been a long time, Luke. I see you still know how to ride a horse.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“It’s a small world. You never know who you’re going to run into. Anyway, we can catch up later. We’re going to hold here until our friends arrive, hopefully late this evening.” She explained that a regiment of armored dragoons was in route, along with a medical company. “I expect your friends over there will make a determined attempt to dislodge us before then. I can’t order you to stay, but we could use help manning the perimeter, especially since we may have to hold out until after dark.”
Luke agreed to stay and help the Pathfinders. Peta asked for his seven best men, then asked him to have the rest form a perimeter around their position. She had three of Luke’s troopers replace the loaders on the three medium machine guns, then assigned two-each to the recoilless rifle and heavy machine gun operators as loader/ ammo carriers, freeing up her own men from those tasks. She could now employ all six dismounted crew-served weapons and the six vehicle-mounted weapons systems simultaneously.
Peta ordered the heavy machine gun team and the recoilless rifle team to dig in up on the ridgeline where they could fire down in three directions: across the Maury River to the west, across the James River to the south, and back down the James River Gap to the east.
Keefe supervised the building of well dug-in gun positions for the dismounted weapons, as well as the training of the seven new loader/ ammo carriers borrowed from Luke’s troop. Peta gave Luke and his three surviving sergeants a crash course in using squad-level radios, and provided each of them with a radio from their spares.
Just as Doc Wilson was finishing up with the wounded, they heard a women screaming. Peta turned to the north and saw the woman crouched in the small farmer’s field that occupied a thin stretch of land between the Maury River and the mountains. She ordered Sergeant Lane and Doc Wilson to go check the situation out. Proceeding warily, they moved toward the woman’s location.
Almost simultaneously, two riders emerged from Glasgow, bearing a white flag of truce. Alerted to this development by Murray, Peta turned her attention that way and brought a pair of field glasses up to her eyes. After a few moments, she turned to Luke.
“I imagine they want a truce to pull their wounded off the battlefield. I’ll let you handle that – no need to give them a better look at us than necessary. Don’t bring the radio; I don’t want that falling into their hands. I’ll agree to a two-hour truce, but the stretcher bearers can’t carry rifles. The officers can carry pistols to shoot the wounded horses, if necessary.” Luke mounted up, gave orders for two of his men to accompany him, placed a white handkerchief on the end of his sword, and then rode out to meet the rebel delegation, holding the sword high before him.
“Six, this is Three,” called Sergeant Lane’s voice over her radio. “We got a bad situation here. Better come on over.”
Peta reluctantly turned from watching Luke’s progress across the field and trained her field glasses on Smith’s position to the north. Doc Wilson was working feverishly on someone she couldn’t see down on the ground, while Sergeant Lane was holding the still screaming women back. She grabbed her assault rifle and double-timed over to Lane’s location.
When she arrived, she found that Doc was working on a small boy, perhaps seven years old.
“G-S-W to the abdomen,” Doc replied before she could ask the question. “Looks like one of the rebel Minie balls overshot and hit him in the stomach. I’ve stopped the bleeding, but he’s lost an awful lot of blood. He needs to get to the MASH unit right now.”
“Shit!” Peta exclaimed. The woman had stopped struggling and lapsed into weeping, so Lane let her go. She immediately went to her child’s side.
“I’ll call it in,” Peta continued, consulting her map display. Switching her radio to the MEDEVAC frequency, she spoke into the mike. “I have a MEDEVAC request. Over.”
“Unit on MEDEVAC frequency stand by. Break. Unit on MEDEVAC frequency send your request, over,” came a disembodied voice over the radio.
“Line 1: UTM 17 Sierra 637453 East, 416564 North, break,” Peta replied, providing the pickup site. Next she provided her call sign and frequency.
“Line 2: This is Juliet One Sierra Three Six on two-oh-six-one-six, break.”
“Line 3: One Bravo, break,” indicating one urgent surgical patient.
“Line 4: Four liters plasma replacement, antibiotic pack, break,” requesting additional medical supplies. She added, “Spec-Ops small arms ammo pack, and four indigenous forces packs, break.” As long as a chopper was coming, she might as well get an ammo resupply and decent weapons for Barns’ troopers. This request would force them to use the CSAR bird instead of an air ambulance, but since there was only one casualty and there were enemy in range, that wasn’t a bad thing.
“Line 5: One Lima, seven-year-old male with G-S-W lower abdomen, one Alpha, accompanying adult civilian, one Kilo India Alpha, break.” Peta saw that Sergeant Lane was trying to get her attention. He pointed in the direction of where Luke was meeting with the rebel delegation. Four men were carrying two stretchers towards the meeting point. Reasoning that Luke had negotiated for the return of two prisoners in return for the Confederates retrieving their wounded, she amended her previous transmission. “Line 5 correction: Three Lima, one seven-year-old male with G-S-W lower abdomen, two adult males, condition unknown but non-ambulatory, one Kilo India Alpha, one Alpha, accompanying adult civilian, break.”
“Line 6: Echo, I repeat Echo, break,” she continued, indicating the presence of enemy troops in the area, and the need to proceed
with caution.
“Line 7: Purple Smoke, over.” The landing zone would be marked with purple smoke.
“Stand by Papa Oh Six,” came the reply. “Confirming availability of the bird, out.”
Sergeant Lane asked whether or not Peta thought they would release the bird, given the daytime helicopter flight restriction currently in place. As she was pondering that question, a new voice came over the radio.
“Mike Four Alpha Four One, this is Juliet One Charlie Oh Six actual; execute, I say again, execute, out.” Brigadier Coyle had spoken.
Two hundred kilometers to the northwest, Alpha One One, an MH-60JEP Pave Hawk CSAR helicopter would begin to spin up its rotors. At maximum speed it would take about forty minutes to reach the LZ. Peta removed her helmet and combat spectacles and went to the weeping woman.
“Ma’am, my name is Captain Peta Carver of the Indian Stream Republican Militia. Can you please tell me your name and the name of your child?”
“Why did you shoot my boy?” she wailed. A thin, blonde in her late twenties to early thirties, the woman was dressed all in black. Peta assumed she’d been widowed recently.
“We didn’t shoot him, those Confederate troops over in the town did. We were shooting at them while they were in the field and they were shooting back at us, although I don’t see how they could have missed so badly. Can you tell me your name and your boy’s name?” she asked again.
“Margaret Sampson. My boy’s name is Joe,” she answered, a little calmer now.
“We’re going to take good care of Joe,” Peta said. “Doc is the best medic you’ll find. We’ll have your boy in the care of the best doctors in the world as soon as possible. We’ve sent for an ambulance, but it’s going to take a little over half an hour to get here. Now I need you to listen to me: We’re going to allow you to go with Joe to the hospital, but that means you won’t be coming back home for at least several days. Is there anything you need to do at home before you leave?”
The Legend of Indian Stream Page 23