Two identical sieges weren't enough for Abraham's reelection. The cats of the north had seen the losses that Ulysses had been taking and they weren't happy. Worse was yet to come.


Mapleshade's POV

Mapleshade was busy with herself in the trench as she knew that her work was far from done as she had to get herself ready in case of a union attack. Soon the pitter-patter of hooves was heard as the sounds of a small group of cats were coming up to the trenches. The calico tom cat got off of his horse as he was ready to explain to the leader about what was going on.

"Me and my forces are going to attempt to move north and try to take the capitol in the hope that General Grant withdraws some of his forces from Petersburg to try to defend the city. I hope it works." The calico tom responded as he had plans. Robert looked at him as he was worried about such a risky move.

"General Early I hope I know what you are doing, I sense that a move like this would be risking all your chips and pushing them to the center right from the start and not getting the cards yet. I will send some volunteers with you to carry out this mission as I am praying to Starclan that I hope you know what you're doing." Robert responded as he turned to his holdout that were still waiting around that were going be used up in combat. He knew he had a few that were itching for a fight as he decided to speak.

"Any cat who is willing to volunteer to take the enemy capitol come out of the trench and follow behind I hope we can recruit more cats along the way seeing how this is going to be important to us. We want to try to lure some of the forces away from here, not take the capitol and the launch lightning raids if needed." Jubal made his announcement. The cats seemed unsure about what to do but Mapleshade seeing how no one was willing to go decided to get up as headed to Jubal.

"I volunteer to help you." Mapleshade mewed as she was concerned about what was going on. Jubal looked concern as if Mapleshade was the only one going. Jubal looked out to the entrenched cats looking for more volunteers to help him. Soon one by one, the cats began to head out of the trenches as they soon massed to being a couple hundred volunteers but Jubal looked at his forces seeing that he knew that it wasn't enough but he knew he had to make do with the forces.

"I'll see what I can do with this." Jubal responded as Robert turned his head to him as he was ready to set off northward. Mapleshade went to Robert as she herself was worried.

"Robert, you sure you will remain here when I return?" Mapleshade asked him. Robert looked at her as he was sure and had some level of certainty. He soon turned to Mapleshade as he began speaking.

"Yes I will Maple leaf, I will be here. I have to watch the troops to see if we can be able to hold Petersburg so that Richmond can continue to receive supplies. I will see you when the war is over." Robert responded as Mapleshade gulped. She knew this was the last time she see Robert for the rest of her life as she soon shook his paw.

"I promise I'll be back, hold out." Mapleshade mewed. She soon turned as she began walking away with Jubal and his forces as they were going to try to divert some of the troops away from Richmond.

Jubal and Mapleshade began moving northwest as they had intended to try to threaten the capitol the first small battle was the battle of Lynchburg on the 17th-18th which they managed to snag a victory and they were driving straight through Virginia as they were getting close to D.C. They knew they could easily stop the war.


Abraham's POV

Abraham was sitting in his office as Frederick entered the office; he seemed frightened as he raced for Abraham as he had some news for him.

"Mister President, the confederates, they're heading to D.C. around 10,000 of them." Frederick mewed as he expressed his concern. Abraham nodded as he wanted to use the emergency garrison he had around as it numbered around 5,000. Abraham looked at Frederick as he knew that he had a request.

"Frederick, I request the Garrison to meet the confederates where they might be heading to We have a series of ridges we can fire down upon so they don't take the city. Also, I wish to observe this force to see how well they do." Abraham noted his request with the garrison. Frederick nodded as he knew about this but if the president was killed in battle, his replacement would continue for the rest of the term but it was unknown for what he would so. Abraham got up as he went to meet the garrison and move out with them. The two forces would meet just north of the city as the forces were going to clash out.


Mapleshade's POV

Fort Stevens, July 11th, 1864, Northern Washington D.C.

Mapleshade, Jubal and the others were marching through the sweltering heat as they had attacked on one of the worst hot spells in history, the temperature was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and they were exhausted and unable to do anything about it. Mapleshade collapsed as she was on the verge of melting in the heat. To make matters worse, there hadn't been any rain for the past 47 days in this area and thus the grass was long and dry, a terrible time to start a wild fire. Mapleshade opened the cork to her canteen as she found nothing as she tapped it as she realized her water canteen was empty. She turned to Jubal as she was out of water.

"I got no water left in my canteen." Mapleshade mewed as she panted from thirst. Jubal turned as his face looked like it was melting from his bones as he was covered in sweat.

"We all got no water left, it might be too hot to do anything right now and a good chunk of our force isn't here yet so we must prepared, it's best we decide to relax until the temperature cools down a bit and get our forces together for a sufficient enough attack." Jubal responded. He soon got off his horse as Mapleshade was sitting under a dead and wilted oak tree. Jubal sat down next to her in the shade. Mapleshade closed her eyes in the heat and fell asleep wondering when the forces would arrive.

They did arrive an hour later as the heat was beginning to soften. Mapleshade and Jubal woke up from their naps as they had a huge bulk of their force. Jubal decided to light a cigar as he began to smoke it.

"Sir, the temperature is dropping; we may have a chance to attack." One of the commanders from the group asked Jubal as the heat was subsiding meaning there was still a chance to attack. Jubal looked at his forces as the heat did a number on them.

"Okay prepare to move out, when there is no heat, hopefully there will be nothing to stop us, be prepared to move." Jubal responded as they all picked up their muskets as they got ready to move. "Yeah looks like there will be nothing standing between us and those filthy Yankees. We might be fighting for a lost cause but it's a cause we must serve." They began marching out with a small force of a thousand cats with the rest standing by as reserves. Jubal and Mapleshade marched along as they had no cavalry to support them. Jubal sensing the cigar was nearly burn out, took it out of his mouth and flicked it to the side as it was hidden under some thick brush. Jubal thinking that the brush would be moist enough for the cigar remains to burn out didn't seem to mind as he got the troops moving but in the underbrush, it served as tinder as a cracking sound was heard as the brush slowly caught fire. This would turn bad.

Mapleshade and the others soon arrived as a force of a couple hundred union troops were waiting on the front lines as they were lined up. On the ridges were several artillery batteries as Jubal looked out.

"Fire and charge!" Jubal gave the order out. Mapleshade lead the charge on their forces as they began charging, wildly firing their muskets in many directions, seeing how they were excited, they were very disorganized as their musket balls flew in many different directions. Only Mapleshade didn't fire as she immediately charged out after their forces. The union cats lowered their muskets and fired away as their shots tore through a couple confederate troops as the artillery barrages began raining down on the confederates. Mapleshade looked up as dirt and dry grass rained down on her as she looked up one of the ridges and standing on top of the ridge was the president of Thunderclan himself, Abraham. Mapleshade sensed this as she had an opportunity to cripple the north's morale and take their capitol. Mapleshade who hadn't fired yet raised her rifle up to the president's head as she looked down the rifle.

"This is for the south." Mapleshade mewed. She fired the rifle but the shot forced her musket upwards as the shot flew out, it was a complete miss as instead of landing in Abraham's skull, it struck his top hat her was wearing as Abraham looked down seeing his top hat that was shot off of him. He picked it up, brushed it and puts it back on. Mapleshade hissed with anger as she didn't get him. "Dang it!" Soon the troops of the engagement were beginning to fall back as they smelt the scent of smoke.

"Fall back fall back! The whole field is on fire!" The troops on both sides shouted. It turned out Jubal's cigar had ignited a fire in the brush and now sensing that the entire field may be on fire, they knew they had to withdraw. Mapleshade sensing the opportunity fell back as she now didn't have a chance to fire at Abraham again, both sides began to withdraw.

Jubal, Mapleshade and their forces retreated from the fields as they sensed now wasn't the time to stay around with the fire raging so they fell back to Virginia giving the union a victory.

"Major, we didn't take Washington but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell." Jubal panted as it was the fire that ended up scaring both sides away and because of the fire, the casualties were minimized. Mapleshade was disappointed though as she didn't get the chance to take Abraham's life away but the fire managed to put a damper on her experience. She knew their only choice was to flee.


Frederick's POV

Frederick was in D.C. itself with the secondary forces as Abraham returned with the main army. Frederick looked at the president as he was wondering what was going on.

"You seem to be back early, did you win?" Frederick asked as he saw the president was back. Abraham looked at him as he soon spoke.

"The battle was short and pretty uneventful as fire tore everyone apart. Someone shot my top hat off of my head but we were surely frightened by this. Hopefully we can push these confederates back." Abraham mewed as he gave the casualty report. Despite the hot day they managed to take minimal losses and the fire had to put a damper on it.

"Let's hope they don't stick their noses through here again." Frederick mewed as he knew that the capitol needed to be better guarded. The sun was going to set but back in Petersburg, that sunset would spark something massive.


Unknown POV

Two cats were wandering in the darkness as they were discussing on how to break the stalemate. One of them was handling the ropes as he had a plan.

"So Ambrose, I propose that we dig a tunnel right underneath the trenches of the Confederates and we try to blast a big enough hole underneath them leaving a large gap in their lines, once that is done, we will move our troops through the hole and capture all the forces around us and that is how we take Petersburg." The voice came. That cat was a miner whose plan was to lay several kilograms worth of dynamite under the enemy's trenches and light them all up with a long fuse like rope. Ambrose looked out as he had come to Petersburg to observe the trench warfare that was going on. The plan itself seemed risky but if it was something to break the stalemate, it wouldn't be worth it unless you tried it.

"Hmm. I don't know if this plan would work but I say we should give it a go." Ambrose mewed as he was willing to try it as he knew that he would use any opportunity to break the stalemate. "So we'll begin digging underneath the trenches and distance between ours and theirs, once done we should have the dynamite ready to blast a big enough hole in the middle more towards their left flank and when that is done, we send in the troops. It will take several days to construct the tunnel and get everything finalized but if you're up for it, I say we should go all in." Ambrose knew this plan was a big gamble but if what he said was correct, they could have a victory within a matter of days. So the plan was going to be finalized.

The trench was going to be blown up.

[A/N]: Yesterday marks the 155th anniversary of when the Civil War was brought to a close when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox Court House and I promise I will get to that but we are getting very close. I will moreover tell you what is going to happen since Mapleshade will be absent for a good chunk of the story since she and Robert had split. Looks like Mapleshade is going to be alone for a while so you'll have to bear with the rest of the readers that she might not appear for the next few chapters.