A Stillness at Appomattox (146 page)

The
result
was
a
bungled
battle
which
nearly
became
a humiliating
defeat.
Early
had
plenty
of
time
to
pull
his scattered
divisions
together,
and
when
Sheridan
finally
attacked
it
was
nearly
noon,
instead
of
6
a.m
.
as
he
had planned.
Even
at
noon
he
had
only
half
of
his
infantry
on hand,
and
a
good
deal
less
than
half
of
his
artillery,
and
his battle
line
had
not
gone
far
before
it
ran
into
trouble.
The three
divisions
of
the
VI
Corps
were
going
in
side
by
side, with
one
of
Emory's
divisions
on
their
right,
and
somehow the
two
corps
lost
contact
and
let
a
gap
develop,
and
the Rebels
saw
it
and
made
a
hard
counterattack
that
stopped the
VI
Corps
and
sent
Emory's
men
flying.

Emory's
other
division
came
up
to
check
the
rout,
and Upton
brought
his
brigade
over
to
help
plug
the
gap,
and after
a
while
the
situation
was
stabilized.
Nevertheless,
by midafternoon
the
Federals
were
doing
little
more
than
hold their
own,
and
they
had
had
severe
losses.
Upton
was
knocked off
his
horse
by
a
shell
fragment
and
Sheridan
told
him
to go
to
the
rear
and
get
into
a
hospital.
Upton
disobeyed—it was
his
theory
that
combat
commanders
ought
to
be
up front
with
their
troops—and
after
a
doctor
put
a
tourniquet on
his
wounded
leg
he
got
in
a
stretcher
and
made
the stretcher-bearers
take
him
along
with
the
brigade
through the
rest
of
the
battle.
¹⁰

Meanwhile
Sheridan
was
getting
the
mess
straightened
out

He
was
up
and
down
the
field
in
a
fury,
his
dark
face
aglow, dripping
perspiration,
his
eyes
snapping,
his
black
horse
all flecked
with
foam.
He
had
his
staff
officers
take
details
and comb
the
woods
for
stragglers
and
shirkers,
and
these
recruiting
parties
caught
the
spark
and
went
through
the underbrush
with
sabers
swinging,
herding
their
captives forward,
making
brand-new
infantry
companies
out
of
them, and
leading
them
into
the
fight
with
mighty
saber
thwackings for
all
laggards.
A
Connecticut
officer
who
watched
them chuckled
that
he
had
not
seen
so
much
spanking
since
he
was a
schoolboy.
¹¹

While
the
stragglers
were
being
rounded
up
Sheridan
de
manded
recapture
of
the
ground
which
had
been
lost
to
the Rebel
counterattack.
This
job
fell
chiefly
to
the
8th
Vermont, a
veteran
regiment
whose
Colonel
Stephen
Thomas
had
once been
a
leading
Democratic
politician,
stoutly
opposed
to
all coercion
of
the
South.
Recently
he
had
gone
home
on
furlough
and
his
former
party
associates
had
chided
him
for deserting
the
true
faith.
"Thomas,
you've
changed,"
they complained.
"We
haven't."
A
true
Vermonter,
Thomas
replied:
"Fools
never
do."

Now
he
was
about
to
lead
his
regiment
across
a
meadow and
into
a
smoky
grove
of
embattled
Rebels,
and
the
prospect
was
not
inviting.
Thomas
sized
it
up,
then
rode
out
in front
of
his
regiment,
color-bearers
beside
him,
and
in
his powerful
spellbinder's
voice
he
thundered:

"Boys,
if
you
ever
pray,
the
time
to
pray
has
come.
Pray now,
remember
Ethan
Allen
and
old
Vermont,
and
well drive
'em
to
hell!
Come
on,
old
Vermont!"
¹²

Then
he
wheeled
about,
his
sword
held
high,
and
rode
at a
walk
toward
the
Rebel
firing
line,
without
a
backward glance.
Old
Vermont
followed,
cheering,
and
a
regiment
or two
in
the
XIX
Corps
jumped
up
to
join
in
the
charge,
and the
Southern
battle
line
began
to
draw
back.

Sheridan
went
galloping
over
to
the
left
of
his
own
line, to
where
General
Getty
led
a
division
of
the
VI
Corps.
Sheridan
had
at
last
got
Crook's
infantry
out
of
the
ravine
and they
were
going
into
battle
formation
far
over
on
the
right, and
beside
them
Sheridan's
chief
of
cavalry,
General
Alfred Torbert,
had
two
good
mounted
divisions
ready
to
go,
and Sheridan's
army
now
formed
a
great
crescent,
five
miles
from tip
to
tip,
far
overlapping
the
Confederate
left
flank.
It
was Sheridan's
idea
that
this
crescent
must
now
move
forward, and
when
he
came
up
to
Getty—felt
hat
gripped
in
one
hand, nobody
riding
with
him
but
a
lone
orderly—he
was
all
dust and
sweat
and
fire,
and
he
was
shouting:

"General,
I've
put
Torbert
in
on
the
right
and
told
him to
give
'em
hell,
and
he's
doing
itl
Crook
too
is
on
the
right, and
giving
it
to
'em.
Press
them,
General—they'll
run!"
He swore
a
tremendous
oath
and
repeated:
"Press
them,
General —I
know
they'll
run!"
¹³