William POV
After my talk with Susannah, General Lee sent me off with secret war plans…again. I knew he didn't trust anyone else with this task, but I didn't always want to be the one sent off. I had to leave a few times per month with information that most soldiers wouldn't want to be caught dead with. The nice thing was that the General had given me permission for a two day leave following the delivery of the letters.
This time, he seemed especially upset about the correspondence and I pondered this as I rested from traveling. I was sitting under an old oak tree and I was playing with one of the envelopes. I was curious as to what the urgent information was and had other reasons of interest to know what they contained, so I tried holding the papers up to the sun to see if I could read through the envelopes, but no luck was found there. After much deliberation, I just decided to open it. The information I found was something that must be reported as soon as possible: we were going to Gettysburg to attack the Union!
After reading through it twice, I quickly scrambled up and rode to the last camp. After I was done delivering the already opened message there, I kept on at a fast pace towards my next destination. I arrived in the very late afternoon. The Union camp.
"Major McKinley," the soldier addressed me. It was so odd being called by my real name here, after getting used to "Davis", but at least my rank was the same in both armies. The young soldier, Ryan, led me to the large tent at the edge of the encampment. It was a pity that this boy would probably die in this war, there is no way he could have been eighteen. It just showed you how desperate the army had become for soldiers.
I was in a bit of a rush to bring this information to the attention of General Grant, and I burst in the tent, out of breath from my run through the camp. "McKinley! What on earth happened, we haven't heard from you in weeks! Do you have news of the Confederate's plans?" General Grant asked. "Yes sir… they plan to attack at Gettysburg… Marching there on Tuesday, but it will take a few weeks with the number of people…through the Shenandoah Valley… almost 74,000 men will be meeting there."
General Grant immediately started making plans, but found a moment to thank me and tell me to get a drink and rest. As I took my leave I heard bits of his conversation with the other officers, "General Meade will go with ninety thousand m….."
Today was just another day as a spy. You risk your life with information that you secretly turned over, get a small amount of praise, and be off, all the while letting no one know who you really are. There were times when I almost slipped, such as that first day I met Susannah. It took me a moment to remember that I was Major William Simon Davis at the time, and not Major William Ethan McKinley. I was on my way back from a meeting with some Union officers when I had come across her with Private Johnson.
There were times when I would be sent with messages to the Confederate camps and I did not check with my correspondents in the Union. This was the first time I had ever come directly to the Union camp, and I hadn't even contacted my contact. I was, however, glad that I could help my country when I had information, although this was the first time anything of importance had come up.
I got some coffee, aware of the stares I received. I was still in my Confederate uniform. Well, I was leaving soon, so I just didn't really care. I wanted to get back to Susannah and protect her any way that I could.
Ooooh! He's a spy! (I'm just skipping a few battles that Lee was involved with, such as Winchester 2, Aldie, etc. They don't fit with my timeline, so let's pretend they had other troops there)