"Walter Jon Williams - No Spot of Ground" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

shorter."

"I would like to submit, apropos, that Grant may not want Richmond so much as to defeat us in the
field."

Fitz Lee puzzled his way through this. "He's been fighting us nonstop, that's the truth. Hasn't broken off
so much as a day."

"Nevermore," said one of the ravens. Fitz Lee looked startled. Poe's men, used to it, shared grins. Poe's
train of thought continued uninterrupted.

"Moreover, if Grant takes Hanover Junction, he will be astride both the Virginia Central and the
Richmond and Fredericksburg. That will cut us off from the capital and our sources of supply. We'll
have to either attack him there or fall back on Richmond."

"Mebbe that's so."

"All that, of course, is speculation--a mere exercise of the intuition, if you like. Nevertheless, whatever
his intent, it is still an observed fact that Grant is moving across my front. Quad erat demonstrandum."

Lee's eyes twinkled. "Quod libet, I think, rather." Not quite convinced.

"I have heard their horses. They are well south of where they are supposed to be."

Lee smiled through his big beard and dug a heel into the turf. "If he's moving past you, he'll run into my
two brigades. I'm planted right in his path."

There was a saying in the army, Who ever saw a dead cavalryman? Poe thought of it as he looked at
Lee. "Can you hold him?" he asked.



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 No Spot of Ground

"Nevermore," said a raven.

Lee's smile turned to steel. "With all respect to your pets, General, I held Grant at Spotsylvania."

Gravely, Poe gave the cavalryman an elaborate, complimentary bow, and Lee returned it. Poe
straightened and hobbled to face his brigade commanders.

Perhaps he had Fitz Lee convinced, perhaps not. But he knew--and the knowledge grated on his bones--
that Robert Lee would not be convinced. Not with Poe's reputation for hysteria, for seeing Yankees
everywhere he looked. The army commander would just assume his high-strung imagination created
illusory armies behind every swirl of mist. As much as Poe hated it, he had to acknowledge this.

"General Lee has made his plans for today," he said. "He will attack to the west, where he conceives
General Grant to be. He may not choose to believe any message from his other wing that the Yanks are
moving."