youth's blindfold was removed.
Then, one by one the regiments were marched past the dead. Men from Virginia and Georgia, from the Carolinas and Tennessee, from Alabama and Louisiana, were all shown the three corpses, and after the infantry came the artillery and the engineers, all made to look into the eyes of the fly-infested dead, so that they would understand what fate awaited a deserter. General Jackson had been the first man to inspect the three corpses, and he had stared intently into the faces as though trying to understand the impulse that could drive a man to the unforgivable sin of desertion. As a Christian the General had to believe that such sinners could be redeemed, but as a soldier he could not imagine any of the three men knowing a moment's peace throughout eternity, and his face showed nothing but disgust as he twitched his horse's reins and headed toward the farm that served as his headquarters.
It was there, in a parlor that was hung with an ancient portrait of President George Washington and a newer one of President Jefferson Davis, that the General undertook his second unpleasant duty of the day. He stood with his ramrod-straight back to the portrait of Washington and, flanked by three senior staff officers, summoned General Washington Faulconer into his presence.
The parlor was a small room made even smaller by a map table that almost filled the space between its lime- washed walls. Washington Faulconer entered the room to find himself cribbed in a narrow space and faced by four men behind the map table, all standing and all looking uncomfortably like judges. He had half expected to be seated opposite the General, but instead this meeting was evidently to be conducted formally, and Washington Faulconer felt even more uncomfortable at that daunting prospect. He was wearing a borrowed sword and a borrowed jacket that was at least one size too big for him. Sweat was trickling into his golden beard. The small parlor stank of unwashed bodies and dirty clothes. 'General,' Faulconer said in cautious greeting as he stood opposite his commanding general.
Jackson said nothing at first but just stared at the fair-haired Faulconer. The General's face showed the exact same expression as when he had stared down at the three slack-jawed, chest-shattered deserters in their cheap pine coffins, and Faulconer, unable to meet the intensity of that blue-eyed gaze, looked guiltily away. 'I gave orders,' Jackson spoke at last in his clipped, high voice, 'that all the crossings of the Rapidan were to be guarded.'
'I—' Faulconer began, but was instantly silenced.
'Quiet!' Even Jackson's three staff officers felt a frisson of terror at the intensity of that command, while Washington Faulconer visibly shook. 'I gave orders,' Jackson began again, 'that all the crossings of the Rapidan were to be guarded. Men of your brigade, General, discovered an unmapped ford and were intelligent enough to obey my orders. While you'—and here the General paused just long enough for a rictus to shiver his body —'countermanded them.'
'I—' Faulconer began, and this time was stopped not by a word of command but simply by the look in the General's blue eyes.
'The damage?' Jackson turned abruptly to one of his most trusted aides, Major Hotchkiss, a scholarly and painstaking man who had been deputed to discover the truth about the night's incursion. Hotchkiss had arrived at the remnants of the Faulconer Brigade's headquarters at dawn and had spent the next two hours questioning survivors, and now, in a dry, neutral voice, he offered his horrid list.
'Fourteen dead, sir,' Hotchkiss said, 'and twenty-four seriously hurt. Those are soldiers, but there were at least six civilians killed, and three of those, maybe more, were women. We won't know for sure till the tavern ruins are cool enough to be searched.' Hotchkiss's news was all the more damning for being announced in a placid voice. Major Hinton was among the dead, while Captain Murphy was wounded so grievously that no one was certain that his name would not soon be added to the grim tally.
'And among the dead is Captain Talliser, my aide,' Jackson added in a dangerous voice.
No one responded.
'Captain Talliser was the son of a good friend,' Jackson delivered his aide's obituary, 'and was himself a loyal servant of Christ. He deserved better than to be mauled to death by
night raiders.'
In the back of the house a man's voice suddenly began singing 'How sweet the name of Jesus sounds.' Pots clattered in that distant room; then the hymn was interrupted by laughter. The sound of the pots woke a tabby cat that had been sleeping on the parlor's windowsill. The cat arched its back, yawned, delicately stretched out each front paw, then began to wash its face. Major Hotchkiss looked back to his list. 'Of material losses, sir,' he said, 'my preliminary estimate is that sixteen thousand rifle cartridges were lost in the fire, plus eighty-six charges of powder and thirty-eight rounds of common shell. Two limbers, four caissons, and three wagons were burned out and at least six horses taken.' Hotchkiss folded the list, then raised scornful eyes to Washington Faulconer. 'Two battle flags were also carried away by the enemy.'
Another pained silence ensued. It seemed to stretch forever before, at last, Jackson spoke again. 'And how did the raiders cross the river?'
'At a place called Dead Mary's Ford,' Hotchkiss answered, 'which had been properly guarded until the previous night. The raiders were intercepted during their withdrawal and a prisoner taken. The raiders also lost one horse.' Hotchkiss, a dry, stern man who had once taught school, added the fact of the horse's death in a sarcastic voice. Faulconer colored.
'And it was by your orders, General,' Jackson said, ignoring Hotchkiss's sarcasm, 'that the ford was uncovered.'
This time Faulconer tried no defense. He looked up briefly, but he still could not meet Jackson's gaze, and so he looked down again. He wanted to say that he had only been trying to instill discipline into his Brigade and that he had lost his precious saber in the night and, worst of all, that the whole humiliation had been at the hands of his own son. And not just one humiliation, for his servant Nelson had returned that same morning with the dreadful tale of Adam's raid on Seven Springs, which meant that Adam had attacked both his mother and his father, and the realization of those two awful betrayals filled Faulconer's eyes with tears.
'You must have something to say, Faulconer,' Jackson said.
Faulconer cleared his throat. 'Accidents happen,' he suggested feebly. 'The ford,' he shrugged, 'it wasn't on the map, sir, merely a shallow spot. Lack of rain, really.' He knew he was stammering like a fool and tried to pull himself together. Goddamn it! Was he not one of Virginia's wealthiest men? A landowner who could buy this Tom Fool general a million times over? And Faulconer tried to remember all the risible stories about Jackson: how the General taught in a Negro Sunday school and how he gave a tenth of his income to the church and how he took a cold bath at six o'clock every morning, summer and winter alike, and how he held his left hand in the air so the blood would not collect and turn an old wound rancid, but somehow the catalog of Jackson's eccentricities and imbecilities did not make Faulconer feel any more confident. 'I deemed that the ford was not important,' he managed to say.
'And what did you deem my orders to be?'
Faulconer frowned, not understanding the question.
'I ordered all fords, regardless of their importance, to be guarded,' Jackson said. 'You thought I was amusing myself by delivering such a command?'
Faulconer, defeated, could only shrug.
Jackson paused a second, then delivered his verdict. 'You are dismissed from your command, General.' Jackson's voice was harsher than ever, prompted not just by Faulconer's dereliction of duty but also by the tears he saw in Faulconer's eyes. General Jackson did not mind tears in their proper place: at a deathbed, say, or in contemplation of Christ's miraculous atonement, but not here where men spoke of duty. 'You will leave this army forthwith,' Jackson continued, 'and report to the War Department in Richmond for further orders. If there are any further orders for you, which it is my fervent hope there are not. Dismissed!'
Faulconer looked up. He blinked back his tears. For a second it seemed he might try and protest the hard sentence, but then he turned without any acknowledgment and left the room.
Jackson waited for the door to close. 'Political generals,' he said bitterly, 'are as fit for soldiering as lapdogs for hunting.' He reached for Major Hotchkiss's list and read its depressing statistics without showing any sign of regret or surprise. 'Make the arrangements for Faulconer's replacement,' he said as he handed the paper back to the staff officer. Then he picked up his shabby hat in readiness for his visit to Lee's headquarters. A final thought struck him as he reached the door and he paused there, frowning. 'The enemy did well,' Jackson said, apparently to himself, 'so we shall just have to do better.'
