Alfred was starring at the door of the oval office, where President Lincoln had summoned now ex-General McClellan to chew him out about his failure at Antietam before stripping him of his command. He wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing.
He remembered watching the Confederates retreat and being on his horse, next to McClellan, when the then-General gave the order to retreat. He was still sore from the battle, and it had hurt even worse then, because he'd felt all of the soldiers who died, on both sides. They were both his people. He remembered saying, "But Lincoln said…" Lincoln had said to pursue them if they tried to run. To win a decisive victory.
McClellan had turned to him and said, "To Hell with what Lincoln said. He's not here. Do you really want to lose any more of our men?" He meant, of course, the Union soldiers, but in Alfred's mind, it was soldiers both sides.
"But…" Alfred had objected weakly. He knew that there was a chance of ending the war with this battle, and the way things stood now, the fighting would just continue and even more men would get pulled into the army and die. But he was so sick and tired of the pain and the dying.
"Come on America," McClellan had said sternly and turned his horse around. Alfred had cast one more glance toward the retreating backs of his Children in Grey before reluctantly turning his horse around to face his Children in Blue and nudged his horse to follow McClellan. He didn't really have a choice.
He knew that McClellan loved his troops and didn't want them to die. He also knew that deep down, he had loved Arthur and Arthur had loved him during the revolution. He knew love wasn't enough to preserve the Union. He wished it was and so many of his people didn't have to die in this war.
"America."
The sound of his name startled him from his memories and he looked at Lincoln, "What?"
Lincoln sighed, and Alfred could tell that the war was taking its toll on him. He said, "General Burnside is setting off the day after tomorrow. Are you ready t go back out there?"
Alfred nodded. He didn't have a choice. No matter what, he would keep the Union together, even if he had to lose half the population to do it.
A/N-I'm taking Advanced Placement US history and we talked about the Battle of Antietam in class. Ms. Neilson didn't give us too much info about tactics and what not, so my depiction of things may not be 100% accurate, but this is fanfiction, so there's a little leeway and the most important parts are true. General McClellan did let the confederates escape after the battle, and he was stripped of his command and replace with General Burnside, who didn't do any better.