Mr Lincoln's Army Read Online Free

being held and
sprang to its feet and scampered nimbly away. Hancock stared at the rocketing
sheep, looked blankly at the quaking soldier in his hands—and then threw his
head back and made the meadow ring with shouts of laughter. 3
    It
was this Hancock whom Haupt found on his midnight quest for troops. Hancock
heard his story and immediately detailed the men for him, and early in the
morning Haupt's trains went lurching off into Virginia. By ten in the morning
Haupt was notified that the bridge near Burke's Station had been rebuilt. He
also learned that enemy troops were still somewhere in the vicinity of Manassas
in very great strength; the head of the construction gang had been told that Lee
himself was with them. A little later trains came steaming back from Fairfax
Station loaded with wounded men.
    For the moment this was all the news there
was. Haupt's line of track went off into the darkness where moved shadowy
forces made large by rumor. For all anyone knew, Lee and his whole army might
be between Pope and Washington. McClellan picked up a report that 120,000
Confederates were moving toward Arlington and the Chain Bridge, bent on the
capture of Washington and Baltimore. Halleck sagely remarked that the thing to
be afraid of at that moment was the danger that Rebel cavalry might dash
forward by night and enter the city—"Rebel cavalry" in those days
being terrifying words, since the plow hands and mechanics whom the Federals
were earnestly trying to turn into cavalrymen were no match at all for Jeb
Stuart's incomparable troopers.
    McClellan sent four infantry regiments out to
the works at Upton's and Munson's hills, covering the main highway in from
Centreville, and instructed them to hold the lines there at all hazards. The
two divisions of Franklin's army corps, just disembarked, loitered about
Alexandria waiting for orders; Halleck and McClellan agreed that they ought to
go forward to aid Pope, but nobody knew quite where Pope was to be found, and
anyway, Franklin had no horses to pull his artillery and no wagon train to
carry food and ammunition, and there seemed to be no cavalry at hand to scout
the road for him. Haupt darkly remarked to himself that a march of twenty-five
miles would put Franklin in the fortified lines at Centreville, which would
surely be within reaching distance of Pope, and felt that Franklin's men could
carry on their backs enough food and ammunition to take them that far. Besides,
Haupt seriously doubted that there was anything hostile this side of
Centreville which could hurt a whole army corps. But nobody asked Haupt's
opinion, McClellan and Halleck began to bicker fruitlessly about the advance,
and Franklin's troops stayed where they were.
    The next day was August 29, and outposts
reported hearing the rumble of gunfire from beyond Centreville. Somewhere off
in the outer darkness the armies apparently had collided. Later in the day
Haupt was able to confirm this. Sitting at the end of the railway telegraph
line, he got a message from Pope himself—in Centreville, by now— and Pope
seemed to be in good spirits, reporting that he was engaged with sixty thousand
Confederates, that Joe Hooker was driving them handsomely, and that McDowell
and Sigel were cutting off the enemy's retreat. McClellan ordered Franklin to
move forward, telling him: "Whatever may happen, don't allow it to be said
that the Army of the Potomac failed to do its utmost for the country"—a
remark which is a complete tip-off to the strange jealousies, rivalries, and
antagonisms that were besetting the high command just then. The troops started
to move that morning, Franklin remaining behind in an attempt to get supply
wagons, of which he finally rounded up a scant twenty; then McClellan began to
have second thoughts, wired Halleck that he did not think Frariklin's men were
in shape to accomplish much if they ran into serious resistance along the road,
and finally ordered Franklin to halt at Annandale, seven miles out.