Chapter 13: Sickles' Disobedience
I'm back with a new chapter, and I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath to see what is going to happen. Well, I won't keep you, so read and review please.
While Dib marched toward the hill with Vincent's Brigade, Tak stood beside General Meade while he dictated long, boring orders to several lieutenants, captains, and sergeants. Instead of orders of combat, they all pertained to supplies, wagons, horses for some major's artillery, and other small details of battle. She sighed in her boredom and looked around for something interesting to see while she waited for her own orders. A small group of soldiers were playing cards on a flat rock. A sergeant by one of the large cannons was really reaming a private.
"You ignorant scabhead, hows we 'sposed to swab the damned barrel if you left the wetsponge on the caisson?!" He shouted. Tak watched. This could get interesting. "Go get it, an' get some common sense whiles you're at it!" The private walked away sulking. Tak wondered where Dib was now. She found herself hoping that he was okay, and wondered why. He was so concerned for her safety earlier…why? And why was she thinking about Dib so much? She smiled.
'I guess I'm kind of starting to care for the human…' She thought to herself. She shrugged. Hancock was coming.
"General Meade, sir." Hancock said, sounding out of breath. "I believe you should come at once and see to this…" Meade looked back at the officers, then to Hancock and nodded. He called for his horse, and climbed on, helping Tak on behind him. Hancock, Meade, and Hancock's staff rode quickly out to a point on the ridge. Below on the field, about ¼ mile off, a portion of the Union army was moving away from the hill toward a hilly patch of trees a short distance away. Tak watched as they moved in perfect formation toward the grove.
"Look at that." Hancock said, staring at the sight.
"Damned Sickles…" Meade said low but angrily.
"Look boys," Hancock said to his staff. "Like they're on parade. What a beautiful sight. Now watch, they'll be falling back in disorder in a few minutes." It struck Tak what was happening.
"Sickles is moving his men anyway?" She asked in disbelief. "After you ordered him, sir? It's…it's disrespect, it's insubordination…"
"It's Dan Sickles." Hancock said with a sigh.
"Remember when he shot his wife's lover dead?" One of Hancock's staff said to another. Meade nodded to Hancock and rode off with Tak.
"Young Lady, we should find Sickles before he makes a serious mistake. He could jeopardize the entire army." He rode down the rise toward the slight hill as Sickles' men entered the trees. There were a few faint musket shots from the orchard as they galloped toward it. They passed a group of a couple dozen of Sickles' men heading for the trees. Meade didn't stop as the officer called out to him. Almost to the hill, they heard a sudden roar of gunfire.
"Damn." Meade growled. "That's more than skirmishers." He gripped his reins tightly, and Tak held onto the general's sword belt as the wind blew through her hair. Another roll of gunfire sounded, along with the thud of two cannons. They rode up the hill into the trees. The smoke of battle was already beginning to form.
"General Sickles!" Meade called out to an officer. "I must speak to Sickles at once!"
"He's a little further up that way, sir!" The man called back, saluting. Meade spurred his horse on.
"Where can I find General Sickles?!" He called, approaching a group on men. Sickles rode out of the smoke on his horse.
"I am here, General sir." He said, saluting Meade as if nothing were wrong.
"General Sickles, you moved your Corps without my orders. You disobeyed me, general." Meade said furiously. Sickles looked around as men fired and units moved from place to place. Cannon shells were beginning to explode in the tops of the trees and on the ground.
"Would you prefer that I move to a position on the ridge, sir?" Sickles asked.
"Damn." Meade said. "I'd prefer it, but those people won't let you!" He shouted, pointing toward the enemy fire. Just then a shell exploded in a tree near the two commanders. General Meade's horse reared up, and Tak found herself falling. She grunted as she hit the ground. With a groan, she opened her eyes and turned her head in time to see Meade fighting for control of his horse as it madly charged away from the battle.
"Are you hurt?" Sickles called from his horse. Tak sat up.
"No." She said angrily, giving Sickles an incensed look.
"Good." He replied nonchalantly. "What is a girl doing on the battlefield anyhow?"
"I'm General Hancock's messenger, and I was acting under General Meade's orders." She said, angry at the comment about a 'girl on the battlefield."
"Well messenger." Sickles said, ignoring another close explosion. "I suppose that means that you're under my command until you get back to General Meade then. And you should work on your salute." Tak growled under her breath. He was right and she knew it. He was the ranking officer on the field, and she was a private. She gave him a salute.
"That's better. Now come. This is good ground, and we must hold it." Tak's feelings for Sickles had changed. Now she really hated him.