The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War Read Online Free Page A

I firmly believe that a swift and decisive push against those works will convince the enemy he cannot remain, that Chattanooga is no safehaven. He is inclined still to retreat. He is beaten, a whipped dog that needs only a sharp strike from us. He will either surrender, or he will scamper away.”
    Forrest was running out of words, nothing coming yet from Bragg. He had little respect for Bragg as a leader, had already experienced Bragg’s tendency to make battlefield decisions based on personality clashes with his own subordinates rather than whatever the enemy might be doing. If Bragg had one characteristic Forrest respected, it was a fierce dedication to discipline. Bragg might shoot a miscreant soldier just to prove a point.
    But there was nothing fierce in Bragg’s demeanor now.
    “General Forrest, I appreciate your zeal for combat. I share it, as you must certainly know. There is great honor in besting the enemy. I am told we bested him right here. My ranking generals seem convinced we handed General Rosecrans a crushing blow. It puzzles me why officers who are supposed to know something of battles can be so misled by first impressions.”
    Forrest stopped moving, tried to decipher whatever message Bragg was giving him.
    “Sir, do you not believe the enemy was swept away from this field? Every officer I have spoken to insists we secured a major victory along Chickamauga Creek. Is that not what … you believe?”
    “General Polk sent one of his commanders … Maney, I believe … sent him forward to observe the mountain passes. He reports much the same as you. But General Polk has not performed to my expectations, to my orders. I am examining even now a path of corrective action. And so, place yourself in my position, Mr. Forrest. Polk has been derelict, and yet I am to believe everything he tells me. I have thus far no complaint against you. And yet I am to act solely upon your observations. I can most reliably depend upon those things I can see for myself, General. Have you ridden across these fields, these wood lots, these patches of forest? I can rarely recall such carnage, such a human tragedy. The dead and severely wounded of both sides lie mingled in a horror that no general can accept lightly, that no civilian can ever understand. The mothers and wives of our fallen men will find no comfort in this so-called victory.”
    Forrest stared, a glance at one of the aides, a young captain, who avoided his eyes.
    “General Bragg, is not the duty of my cavalry to offer you reliable information? You said yourself we have performed well.”
    “You fought well, yes. I have not heard any reports of your men failing to carry out their orders. But with all respects to your accomplishments and your reputation, I learned long ago to distrust cavalry. There is a great deal of
romance
in your service, is there not? All that professed gallantry can lead to carelessness, more time spent impressing the ladies along the way than accuracy in locating the enemy. With respects to you, Mr. Forrest, I must accept your reports with a measure of skepticism.”
    Forrest felt a boiling anger sprout in his brain, the insult more than casual. But still … Bragg was in command. And every officer in the army had been insulted by Bragg more than once. He took a long breath, tried to calm the instinctive response, unclenched a tight fist, a weapon that one part of him wanted to plant squarely across Bragg’s chin.
    “Sir, I can only offer you what I saw myself. The enemy is in full retreat away from here. He has made a frantic withdrawal through the mountains. I made every attempt to engage him, push a fight against the obstacles he put in our path. His rear guard did little more than delay us. Every observation I made tells me that right now, there is no fight in the Federal army. We must drive General Rosecrans from the sanctuary they seek in Chattanooga. He is defeated. He is inclined toward further retreat. We must see it so. We