'Amen to that, sir, amen to that.'
President Lincoln turned away from the window and looked back at his Cabinet. Another thumping sound struck the windowpane, rattling it, all else in the room silent.
The bombardment had been going on since dawn, every two to three minutes another salvo, deeper-sounding than the fire of the previous weeks, clearly the pounding of heavy artillery against Fort Stevens. At night the sky to the north flashed and glowed from the bombardment, civilians out in the street, gathering in small knots, looking expectantly northward, talking nervously.
The city had been under siege for nearly a month and the strain was showing in every face. Every day rumors swept the city that the rebs had broken through, were falling back, had crossed the Susquehanna, had retreated back to Virginia, that renewed riots were sweeping the cities of the North, that France had declared war… and throughout it all he had learned to remain calm, sphinx-like, detached from both the rumors and the emotions.
He returned to his chair and sat down. Beside him Stanton rustled some papers and Lincoln nodded for him to continue.
'As I was saying, Mr. President. It appears that General Lee is advancing on Washington with his entire army now reinforced with the men brought north by Beauregard.'
'And you anticipate an attack?'
'Yes, sir.'
'How soon?'
'Within two to three days. Their siege batteries are giving an unmerciful pounding to Fort Stevens.'
'How unmerciful?' Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy, asked.
'Several guns have been dismounted.' Welles sniffed derisively.
'Edwin, modem weapons simply are not effective against well-dug-in positions. Fort Pulaski in front of Savannah proved that older masonry forts are vulnerable to rifled guns, but a heavy earthen position, you can waste twenty tons of powder and shell against it, and in a single night a regiment of engineers armed with shovels can make it right again. I think we are overreacting.'
'I beg to differ,' Stanton sniffed.
'Gentlemen, we've conducted a dozen such operations with the navy since the start of this war, and always the situation favors the defenders,' Welles replied forcefully. 'Until someone comes up with a new way of attacking or a new explosive that can level forts like Stevens, this is an exercise in futility, and I don't see General Lee engaging in such futility.'
'So why would he bother then?' Stanton replied heatedly.
Lincoln held out his hand for silence. 'Gentlemen, we are at the crisis,' he announced. Gideon Welles smiled and nodded in agreement 'Indulge me for a moment please,' Lincoln continued. No one spoke.
He settled back in his chair, tempted to put his feet up but in such a formal setting that was of course impossible.
'Some thought that Gettysburg and Union Mills were the crisis, but I realize now that they were not. Terrible as those four days were, they were but the opening of the first act in the confrontation that will decide this war.
'Yes, the Army of the Potomac was savaged in that fight, and God forgive us, ten thousand or more families will forever mourn those terrible days, but that was not the confrontation that would decide this crisis. It is now, this day and the next month, that will decide it.'
'Sir. There might very well be seventy thousand or more rebel troops just outside the city this morning,' Stanton announced. 'In that I agree with you, the crisis has arrived, but I must beg to ask, what do you propose to do?'
'Nothing.'
Stanton, flustered, set the papers he was holding back down on the table.
'We have forty-three thousand troops in the city, nearly a third of them well-seasoned veterans from Charleston. Frankly, if they can't hold the city, then I would venture to say we don't deserve to hold this city or win this war.'
Gideon smiled in agreement.
'And those men are backed up by a dozen ironclad gunboats, a thousand marines, and three thousand sailors,' the secretary of the navy threw in.
'And I still maintain that we should shift the Nineteenth Corps down here,' Stanton replied heatedly. 'They are doing nothing but lounging about up on the Susquehanna and I don't see Grant using them to any effect.'
'I queried General Grant about their use in my last letter,' Lincoln replied calmly, 'and he said he preferred to keep them under his direct command. Gentlemen, I will not gainsay our new commander of the armies on this issue.'
Stanton started to open his mouth to speak, but a sidelong look from Lincoln stilled him.
'That is final,' Lincoln said softly.
Stanton nodded, crestfallen at this near-public rebuke.
'Anything else? I'd like to go up to Stevens to have a look around and then to the hospitals.'
'Mr. President, the French,' Secretary of State Seward said. 'Go on.'
'We know for a fact that the French consul in Baltimore sent a report out under a French flag. It should be in Paris by now.'
'Wish we had that ocean telegraph line up,' Welles interjected. 'I'd love to know what is happening over there today. Perhaps the dispatching of some of our ships to the coast of France as a show of force might be required.'
'I would advise against that at the moment,' Seward replied. 'It would only serve to provoke.'
'Provoke, is it? He's the one meddling in Mexico. The English and French are helping to keep the Confederacy alive. Talk about a provocation!'
'Go on, Mr. Seward,' Lincoln interrupted.
'Sir, I think we'll be at war with France by autumn,' the secretary of state replied.
'How so? All based on one letter?'
'The news for Napoleon from Mexico has not been good. He thought he could seize the country in a quick coup and then put his puppet on the throne. Part of his or his wife's dream of a renewed Catholic empire. A mad delusion, but it has gained a following in France and Austria. The campaign has not gone well. Juarez, though still bruised, at this moment is gaining strength in the back country and within a year, two at most, he will be ready to counterattack in strength. Especially if we can help him. Napoleon must see, at least from his reasoning, that if ever there is a hope for him in the New World, it is now, this moment. Union Mills and Baltimore will give him the pretext to recognize the Confederacy, and I suspect he will do it.'
'Napoleon's half-mad,' Stanton sniffed.
'We all know that,' Seward replied.
'Where will he intervene then?' Lincoln asked. 'Texas?'
'That would be my assumption. I don't see them trying a main force attack on the blockade at Charleston or Wilmington. I would venture at Brownsville, right at the border. First land some heavy guns on the Mexican side and establish fortifications. Then the main fleet moves in to engage ours. There'll be the usual claim of a provocation of some sort. Once Brownsville is secured, they'll try to roll our blockading force off the coast, clear up to New Orleans. For the French, a so-called liberation of New Orleans would have a special symbolic meaning as well, having once been French territory.'
Lincoln turned to Gideon.
'Your response?'
'I'd love nothing more. Rear Admiral Farragut's job is done on the Mississippi, though he'll need to hold some forces at New Orleans to support the weakened garrison there. But we could have him shift down to Texas now. Some of our new oceangoing monitors and ironclads could move down there as well. I doubt if the French would risk their new ironclads on a transoceanic voyage. If not, our navy could pound theirs to splinters. Once that was finished, I'd love to see a blockading force off Le Havre.'
