The Last Full Measure Read Online Free

two headed for a large house. Inside, food awaited the men, along with another officer whom Hancock saluted. “Objective accomplished, colonel. No casualties.”
    “Good. The raid I led against a federal depot near Manassas was also successful as more than another diversion. We acquired a number of new rifles and a good supply of shot and powder. Captain Armistead, I am gratified that we were able to prevent you from being subjected to a miscarriage of justice.”
    Armistead saluted as well. “Unfortunately, the miscarriage goes deeper than imprisonment. I was also stripped of rank and expelled from the service.”
    Hancock chuckled. “Damn it all, Lo, the Army of the New Republic can always use another captain, especially one as good as you.”
    “I concur,” the colonel agreed. He turned toward Chamberlain. “And you are, sir?”
    “Professor Joshua Chamberlain.” Chamberlain shook hands with the colonel, feeling awkward, and trying desperately not to lunge toward the food resting on a nearby table. “You are a professional soldier, too, sir?”
    Mosby looked offended. “Not I. You see before you a former felon and a former lawyer.”
    “And yet a damned decent human being nonetheless,” Hancock observed. “As well as the most brilliant master of unorthodox tactics I have ever encountered.”
    “How did you end up here?” Chamberlain asked as Mosby waved him to a seat at the table. With more control than he thought he could muster, Chamberlain began to eat and drink slowly.
    “I might ask the same of you, sir.” Mosby shrugged, then smiled. “There is plenty to eat here. Do not stint yourself. I know the government does not care to waste money on feeding prisoners bound for the plantations. As you have also doubtless discovered, professor, an independent mind is not a virtue in the eyes of our current government. As one who served time in prison, and narrowly escaped time on a plantation myself, over a little matter of shooting a fellow student when I was much younger and more impulsive, I am keen on questions of justice. As a lawyer, this led me to attempt to defend those the government did not wish defended. A timely warning allowed me to escape my own arrest, and since then I have found other ways to fight tyranny.” Mosby patted the pistol by his side.
    “Yet we still do too little,” Hancock grumbled through a mouthful of chicken.
    “We cannot raise the Army of the New Republic overnight,” Mosby replied. “It takes time and training, and the need to do all in secrecy while the government hunts us further complicates the task.”
    “Secrecy, indeed,” Armistead commented. “I have heard little but rumors of your actions in this part of Virginia.”
    “Control of the press makes it an ally of the government in hiding inconvenient facts,” Mosby remarked. “We have caused our rulers trouble enough already, and we are not alone, Captain Armistead. The Army of the New Republic grows in silence, mostly in states to the north but elsewhere as well. The Texican Republic has not been subdued. Every time the US Army defeats one of their armies, Sam Houston raises a new army. California remains in contention despite officially being part of the country. The Californians keep fighting, and they divert enough gold from official accounts to allow them to buy weapons and support from overseas.”
    Hancock nodded. “The army of the west isn’t making much progress in California what with the freedom fighters in Kansas Territory harassing their supply lines, and the Mormon militias doing the same through Deseret.” He grinned. “Nor can having that damned fool McClellan in command help them.”
    “Especially with Early commanding in Texas,” Mosby agreed. “Both of them have their own eyes on the White House, neither wants the other to gain it, and so they work against each other. Our enemies can be the best friends of liberty.”
    Armistead now looked from Hancock to Mosby. “I would join your