Never Call Retreat - Civil War 03 (17 page)

Out front, as always, he thrilled to the thunder behind him as his troopers picked up the pace. Guidons were fluttering as he looked back. Colonel Town, commander of the First, spurred his mount to come up by Custer's side.

"George, bit impetuous just riding straight in like this, ain't it?" Town shouted.

"No time to feel things out, Charles. Schultz is a good scout. His boys have the center of town already. But it's the bridge we want."

Cresting a low rise, they passed the last farm flanking the pike. The town was directly ahead. It was so typical of this region, the houses built close together, facing right onto the street. A scattering of civilians were out, a few were unfurling Union flags from their windows.

He thought of the story of Barbara Frietchie. Most said it was all made up, others said it was the truth, how she had hung a Union flag out the year before, when the rebels marched through on their way to Antietam. Some troops threatened to fire on the old lady and her flag until Stonewall himself came up and supposedly exclaimed, "Who touches a hair of your gray head, dies like a dog, march or..." He'd have to look her up afterward and find out if the old lady really did confront Stonewall.

As they approached the center of town the thunder of their arrival echoed in the canyonlike street, more and more civilians leaning out of windows, some cheering and waving, others staring in silence.

He saw Schultz's boys at the main crossroads, still mounted, carbines drawn. He slowed and shouted for the toll road. The men pointed south.

"The Fifth will follow the railroad track! I'm taking the First in on this road!"

"The rebs are down at the main junction," a sergeant shouted. "Saw them not ten minutes ago."

"Guide the Fifth, Sergeant, and Seventh. Tell them to set up at that columned building that looks like a school and await my orders."

He knew that, according to the book, he should stop here with his reserve and let his lead regiments go forward and, as his professors would say, "develop the situation." Only then should he go forward.

To hell with the book! He was in the lead and would always be in the lead.

The men of the First, coming on fast, were almost up to him. He spurred his mount hard and took off, heading straight through the town. Several blocks farther south and he was again back into open fields, the road just ahead forking, and for a second he slowed.

Schultz hadn't told him about this. Which was the main pike?

The road to the left was broader, partially macadamized, and not waiting, he followed it Less than a minute later he saw the toll station, a small shack, the gate up. The ground ahead started to slope down. It was obviously the way to the river, which was still cloaked with morning mist.

Hills on the far side were clear of fog. They were less than a mile away. Broad open fields greeted him, the usual patchwork of ripening corn, rich green shoots of winter wheat coming up, orchards, pastures, and squared-off woodlots.

No cattle or cows were out grazing. This area had been well picked over last fall and again two months ago as the armies recrossed this ground heading toward Gettysburg. Here and there.fences were missing, passing troops from the previous two campaigns using them as firewood. He reined in, coming to a stop. He turned, pointing toward a farm lane to the west, shouting for the men to form into line. Troopers turned, urging their mounts on, chickens scattering and squawking as the boys galloped to either side of a farmhouse and barn.

The owner of the farm was out on the porch, red-faced and shouting something, but Custer ignored him.

"Colonel Town, you command the right flank. I'll be in the middle. Have four of your companies follow me."

He judged the fence on the east side of the road, ready to jump it, but several troopers were already dismounted, tearing down the stacked-up split rails. The owner was down by the road, shouting curses about having just rebuilt the fence. Custer just looked over at him, grinned, saluted cheerfully, and then rode through the opening, cutting around the edge of a cornfield and into an orchard.- Looking back toward Frederick he saw where the men of the Fifth were coming out, riding to either side of the railroad track, going a bit slower. It'd take another ten minutes before they'd be up and deployed into line.

Turning, he gauged the distance to the river. He could see his goal now, a wooden trestle. The road he had just been on headed down to a covered bridge a few hundred yards south of the railroad crossing.

Dismount and go in carefully or rush it?
He pulled out his field glasses and scanned the river bottom and could see nothing. All was cloaked in mist.

If it's only Phil down there, he most likely has only a hundred or so. But give them a little time and they could work some mischief and prepare a defense, or worse, perhaps some reinforcements are coming up.

Rush him on horseback before he has time to get ready.
He cased his field glasses and drew his saber.

The men of the First were lined up, covering a front of a couple of hundred yards, pistols or carbines out of holsters, officers with sabers drawn.

He could feel that their blood was up. There was nothing like the anticipation of a mounted charge to do that to a man. The tension was building, horses sensing it as well, snorting, a few rearing up, men grasping reins tighter. Men were looking over at him wide-eyed, some grinning.

He hesitated for a second.
Go straight in, or wait for the Fifth to come in on my flank? I've got nearly three hundred men with the First. Five to ten minutes is often the difference between victory and defeat. No, this is the moment!

"First Michigan! Forward at the trot!" He pointed toward the railroad bridge.

Monocacy function

August 25 6:10 A.M.

T
ypical George Custer," Captain Duvall announced, snaking his head. With field glasses focused on George, he watched as his old friend drew his saber, pointed, and then set off, moving to the front of the advancing line.

A thousand yards, three or four minutes, and they'll be on us.
He scanned the ground, so far only one regiment. What looked to be a second was just becoming visible, along the bed of the spur line leading into Frederick. Why didn't George wait for them?

Phil lowered his glasses. Perched on the roof of the depot, he had a clear view, except for the mist still gently rolling up from the river directly behind him.

He had deployed half his men to the left, about a hundred yards over, where the toll road came down to the covered bridge. There was a nice little cut there made by the railroad, about fifteen feet deep, with steep, sloping sides, a perfect entrenchment and place of concealment for his mounts. The rest of his men were in the depot, toolsheds, and outbuildings.

The depot was inside a triangle of rail track formed by the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio right after it crossed the river, the main track running west. The other two sides of the triangle were formed by the spur line that came down from the town of Frederick, branching to either side of the depot so that trains from the city could head west or east.

There were two blockhouses as well. Rude affairs, abandoned. If only he'd had a few field guns he could have held this place against anything George threw at him. One blockhouse, on the far side of the river, looked straight down on the bridge. A single Napoleon twelve-pounder in there could have swept the bridge. The other blockhouse, inside the western edge of the triangle, commanded the railroad cut and the spur line. He had placed a half dozen of his best shooters in there.

George's advancing line was down to less than a quarter mile. He could hear their bugle calls floating across the morning stillness, a beautiful sound. They were picking up speed, George a good twenty yards in front. Phil focused for a few seconds on the distant figure, hat off, golden shoulder-length hair waving in the breeze, a match for the crazy-quilt patchwork of braid on his uniform.

Phil smiled. George always did like those things, a true seeker of glory. And in his heart he prayed that none of his men now singled him out. His own boys knew they'd been friends at the Point, but still, George was a target that just begged to be shot.

Phil slid down from the roof, knocking off a few shingles, jumped to the solid awning that protected passengers waiting for a train, then climbed through an open window to the second floor. His men were hunkered down by the windows, carbines raised, waiting. Many had the new Sharps breechloading carbines, captured during the Gettysburg-Union Mills campaign, cartridges
laid out on the win
dowsills. More than a few were grinning. George was coming straight on, mounted, in the open.

Three hundred yards, now two hundred.

The Yankee bugle call echoed the charge!

The men over in the railroad embankment to his left waited, maintaining good discipline.
Let them get close.

A hundred yards. Damn, they were coming on fast, yelling like demons.

A solid volley rang out from his forty men. Good shots all of them, a dozen saddles emptied. The men around him in the depot opened up, enfilading fire pouring into the flank of Custer's charge.

Monocacy J
unction 6:20 A.M.

“C
harge!" The bugles picked up the command, echoing across the valley, the sound all but overwhelmed by the pounding of hoofs, the high-pitched cries of men loosed from all restraint, caught up in the mad, magnificent splendor of a full-out cavalry charge. He looked back for a second at these good troopers, up off their saddles, knees braced in tight, leaning forward, holding reins with one hand, weapon in the other, crouched low over the necks of their mounts.

The first volley caught him by surprise. He felt a bullet wing past, puffs of smoke ahead.

He looked back. Several troopers had dropped, tumbling from saddles; four or five horses were down, men pitching off their mounts, tumbling end over end. And yet the momentum of the charge was now unstoppable, men and horses weaving around the fallen, riding full out, the first blow not slowing them, instead now driving them forward, weapons raised high. "Come on, Wolverines! Common!" The charge swept down through open pasture and fields. What appeared to be a ravine, perhaps a railroad cut, was straight ahead, marked by puffs of smoke. "Come on, boys!"

He urged his mount onward, the horse moving uncomfortably, favoring its right side. He spared a quick glance down and saw where a shot had sliced its right leg, blood streaming out.

Fifty yards, now twenty-five.

Rebs stood up-from the edge of the ravine, carbines lowered. He hunched down low in the saddle. Another volley. His horse just collapsed, throwing him, knocking his wind out. Troopers of the First Michigan were reining in around him, as he struggled to stand up, their pistols drawn, firing blindly at the puffs of smoke, cursing, yelling.

He judged the moment. Not too many over there, maybe not more than fifty or sixty. He stood up, feeling dizzy, looking for his saber. A trooper leaned far over from his saddle, picked it up from the ground, and tossed it to him.

"Come on! Keep pushing!'

Men, yelling wildly, rode up to the edge of the ravine, pistols out, firing left and right. Men pitched out of saddles. Some rebs were up out of the ravine, pistols drawn, emptying cylinders, tossing revolvers away and drawing sabers, swinging wildly. A mad melee erupted.

A volley erupted from his left. The railroad depot. Puffs of smoke swirling from windows, mingling with the early morning fog. A blockhouse caught his attention. Aperture for a field piece.

My God, did they have artillery here?

Saddles were emptying around him from the enfilading fire. A trooper came up to his side, leading a riderless mount.

"General, sir, might I suggest we get the hell outta here?" the sergeant shouted. Custer remounted.

He scanned the action. The ravine was full of horses; it was h
ard to count them in
all the confusion. A reb came up out of the ravine, raised a carbine, pointing straight at him. The sergeant next to him dropped the man with three shots from his revolver.

"General, sir!"

Custer nodded.

"Sound recall. We'll wait for the Fifth."

The bugle call sounded, the well-disciplined men of his command turned about, many glad to do so, and broke into a ragged gallop back across the field they had traversed minutes before with such confidence.

A few hundred yards out Custer looked back. More than a few rebs were up out of the ravine, shouting defiance.

He looked off to the north. The men of the Fifth were deploying from column into line.

"Let the bastards cheer," Custer announced. "We'll bag them before the hour is out, boys."

T
hree Miles East ofMonocacy J
unction 6:30 A.M.

“G
eneral, is that gunfire?" Jeb Stuart reined in, stopping, the aide by his side, head cocked, listening. Yes, it was. Distant, a soft, muffled popping, almost drowned out by the clatter of hooves behind him, men of Jenkins's Brigade riding to either side of the track in a sinuous column that stretched back for over a mile.

Damn all. What the hell was going on? If not for the damn train he'd have been in Monocacy a couple of hours ago. Looking back down the track, which after the tunnel they had ridden through was again a double line, he saw nothing but his men on horseback. "Pick up the pace!" Stuart shouted. Leaving the column behind he broke into a gallop, heading toward the sound of distant battle.