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

veinous blood"┬ж

When the Ravens had gone for that cemetery, the tombstones hidden in dust and smoke.

When General Edgar A. Poe, CSA, had watched them go, that brilliant summer day, while the bands
played "Bonnie Blue Flag" under the trees and the tombstones waited, like chimneys marking the
factories of a billion happy worms"┬ж

Poe stood before the Starker house and watched the dark form of his fourth and last brigade, the new
North Carolina outfit that had shown their mettle at Port Walthall Junction, now come rising up from the
old farm road like an insubstantial battalion of mournful shades. Riding at the head came its commander,
Thomas Clingman. Clingman saw Poe standing on Starker's front porch, halted his column, rode toward
the house, and saluted.

"Where in hell do I put my men, General? One of your provost guards said up this way, but--"

Poe shook his head. Annoyance snapped like lightning in his mind. No one had given him any orders at
all. "You're on the right of General Corse, out there." Poe waved in the general direction of Hanover
Junction, the little town whose lights shone clearly just a quarter mile to the east. "You should have gone
straight up the Richmond and Fredericksburg tracks from the Junction, not the Virginia Central."

Clingman's veinous face reddened. "They told me wrong, then. Ain't anybody been over the ground,
Edgar?"

"No one from this division. Ewell pulled out soon's he heard we were coming, but that was just after
dark and when we came up, we had no idea what to do. There was just some staff creature with some
written orders, and he galloped away before I could ask him what they meant."

No proper instruction, Poe thought. His division was part of Anderson's corps, but he hadn't heard from
Anderson and didn't know where the command post was. If he was supposed to report to Lee, he didn't
know where Lee was either. He was entirely in the dark.

Contempt and anger snarled in him. Poe had been ignored again. No one had thought to consult him; no
one had remembered him; but if he failed, everyone would blame him. Just like the Seven Days"╦Ь.


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 No Spot of Ground


Clingman snorted through his bushy mustache. "Confound it anyway."

Poe banged his stick into the ground in annoyance. "Turn your men around, Thomas. It's only another
half mile or so. Find an empty line of entrenchments and put your people in. We'll sort everyone out
come first light."

"Lord above, Edgar."

"Fitz Lee's supposed to be on your right. Don't let's have any of your people shooting at him by mistake."