'God damn you!' Sickles roared, turning, fists raised.
Staff gathered around him, holding him back as Howard gazed at him coldly, waiting several seconds as if ready to accept the challenge to a fistfight or a duel. Finally he opened the door and left.
All were in stunned silence as Sickles, breathing hard, was pushed to the far corner of the room by his staff. He struggled for composure. No one in this army had ever dared to fling that at him. In any other position he would have challenged Howard to a duel on the spot, but now he knew he could not. One of his men drew out a flask, and, angrily, he shook his head, returning back to the table. Sykes stood silent, watching him.
'And am I to be sacked, too?' Sykes asked.
'Hell, no,' Dan growled. 'You, sir, put up one hell of a fight. The type of fight I want to see. By God, if I had been allowed to march to your aid at Taneytown, we'd have finished Lee then and there.'
'I'm not sure of that, General Sickles.'
'I am. You are a fighting general, like me. I respect you, General Sykes, and forgive me for what had to be done here.'
Sykes said nothing and Dan smiled.
'I want this army ready to march within the month,' Dan said, 'and your corps will play a leading role.'
'In a month? I would think it will not be until fall before we can even hope to have things reorganized. Beyond our loss of men, over half our brigade, division, and corps commanders fell in the last fight or were captured. The army is a shambles, sir.'
'Not for long,' Dan said. 'And besides, some of those generals are no real loss as far as I'm concerned. I will fill the vacant slots and then we shall see how they fight.'
He drew out a sheaf of papers from the haversack at his side and tossed them on the table.
'On the train ride down here I've been drawing up the reorganization. The First and Second Corps, God bless them, will unfortunately have to be disbanded. The men will be consolidated into my old corps and yours. The men of the Eleventh and Twelfth will be organized around the Sixth Corps. After its streak of hard luck, the Eleventh must be disbanded. We had too many corps in this army anyhow, some barely more than the size of one of Lee's divisions. We were cumbersome, slow to move and act. We'll take that leaf from Bobbie Lee's book and use it. It will be a more effective command structure, fast-acting and — moving. We were cumbersome in weight as well. The loss of the Artillery Reserve was a terrible blow, but we can live with it'
He paused and looked over at Henry Hunt, who stood in the corner of the room.
'I have no complaint against you, Hunt But the artillery reserve is finished. All artillery is to be operational at the corps level with only a small reserve left under my direct command. Do you have any objections?'
Hunt shook his head slowly.
'Sir, I think we should talk about this later.'
'I assumed that's how you would feel, Hunt. No insult to you but I feel that General Grant, if he ever arrives and builds an army, will need a good artilleryman to advise him. Would you care to be transferred?'
Hunt was silent for a moment and then wearily lowered his head.
'Yes, sir, if there is no Artillery Reserve I no longer see a role for me here.'
'Fine then, Hunt, report to my headquarters in the morning and I'll see what I can do for you.'
Glad to be rid of that minor detail, Dan turned back to the rest of the gathering without waiting to hear Hunt's reply.
'We have a lot of work cut out for ourselves, gentlemen. First I want the Army of the Potomac concentrated here. There is to be no siphoning off of units into the command that Grant is supposedly trying to form up at Harrisburg. I repeat, that is final, not one man wearing the corps insignia of our gallant old army is to be taken. As we get the lightly wounded and missing back into our ranks, they will rejoin their old regiments.
'For the morale of the men, even though four of the corps are to be disbanded, they will retain their old corps badges. Regiments are to be consolidated into new regiments from their home states and will retain their colors. I know these men, and those badges and their flags are sources of pride that must be honored by us.'
The men gathered around him nodded with approval.
'I want the best damn rations down here now. None of this hardtack and salt pork while we are in camp. I want good, clean field kitchens; I want fresh food; I don't care how we get it, but I want it. The men are to have fresh bread daily, all they can eat, fresh meat on the hoof; by God we have the transportation here with the railroads and rivers, and I want it. Nothing is to be spared.
'One out of every ten men from each regiment is to be granted two weeks' furlough. Three weeks for our regiments from the Midwest. The enlisted men of each regiment will select among themselves who receives these furloughs. For every recruit they bring back from home their company will be given a cash bonus of fifty dollars, the men of the company to spend it as they see fit.'
'Where are we going to get that kind of money, sir?' one of the staff asked.
'Don't worry about it. I have friends in the right places. If we bring in five to ten thousand that way, it will be worth it. The new recruits will be men from hometowns standing alongside their neighbors and kin in the next fight, not the riffraff to be found by the draft boards. It will play well with the veterans, who will look after them and teach them the traditions of the Army of the Potomac.
'I want a liquor ration to be given every Saturday night as well. Half a gill of rum or whiskey per man.'
'The temperance crowd will scream over that one,' someone chuckled.
'To hell with the temperance crowd. These men have been through hell and deserve a touch of liquor. To be certain, it might cause a few problems, but it will bind them to us the stronger.
'I've got more orders as well, regarding sutlers, equipment, outfitting of select regiments with breech-loading rifles, new uniforms, shoes, drill, reviews. We have thirty days to build this army back into a fighting force, and by God we will do it.'
No one spoke.
'Fine, then. Staff meeting at eight in the morning.'
His tone carried a note of dismissal.
'General Sickles.' It was Sykes. 'Did you see the latest dispatches from Baltimore?'
'Not since I left Philadelphia just after noon.'
'It's reported that Lee is abandoning his position in front of Washington.'
'What?'
'Civilian reports only. President Davis is confirmed as being with him. Baltimore and Annapolis are in a panic. It appears that Lee is marching north.'
Dan grinned.
'Good! Damn good! My one fear was that he would slink off before we could give him the treatment he deserved.'
'Also, General Grant came through here late yesterday and took a courier boat to Washington. There's been no report on him since.'
Sickles’s features darkened.
'Who was with him?'
'General Haupt and Congressman Washburne.' 'Who saw him?'
'Just the guard detail down at the wharf.' 'Did he ask former'
'No sir, not a word. He got off the train and was on the boat and gone within five minutes.' Dan nodded.
With luck, Grant would be ordered to stay in Washington. More than one of his friends would be pulling strings for that even now. If not, it would mean he would return through here. That was worth knowing, and of course Dan would make sure he was unfortunately unavailable when Grant came through. The last thing he needed now was for that man to be interfering in his own plans.
Everything would fall into place in due course, of that he was certain.
Come in, Elihu,' Lincoln said, waving for the congressman to sit down in the seat across from his desk.
Elihu, moving slowly, obviously beaten down with exhaustion, exhaled noisily as he took the seat. Lincoln smiled, stocking feet up on his desk.
'Did you see him off?'
