beauregard awoke slowly, with a hand shaking his shoulder. reluctantly he abandoned a dream in which the south had remained at peace and he was governor of his state.
piquette's flower-like face hovered over him in the dimness. she rested on one elbow in the big bed beside him and shook his shoulder.
"gard!" she said urgently. "wake up! it's after midnight."
"oh, damn!" he groaned, rolling out of the warm covers. "and the northerners will attack today if my intelligence service hasn't gone completely haywire."
"get dressed," she said, dropping her bare feet to the floor and smoothing her nightgown over her knees. "i'll fix you some coffee."
he pulled on his uniform, the confederate grey with the stars glittering on the shoulders, while she plugged in the hotplate and started the coffee. outside, the eastern sky was streaked with dim light, against which the sleeping houses of winchester thrust up stark silhouettes.
she sat across the little table from him, a flowered robe drawn around her, while he sipped his coffee and thrust the last wisps of dreams from his head.
"quette," he said, "i want you to pack and get out of here. before daylight, if you can get ready. head south, for birmingham. i'll send a staff car around for you as soon as i get to headquarters."
"i don't want to leave you, gard," she objected.
"you've got to, quette. we can't hold these federals. we're in a bulge here, and the only reason they haven't cracked us out yet is chattanooga holding our right flank."
he kissed her goodbye, a long kiss, and strode down the street to the franklin county courthouse, where he had set up headquarters for the army of middle tennessee when the union troops had forced them out of nashville. the place was a beehive of activity.
the eastern sky glowed red over the cumberlands and the artillery was thundering in the north when general beauregard courtney rode out toward the front. he had his driver park the staff car on a slight rise overlooking his troop formations.
the war was going badly for the south, and beauregard unhappily took much of the responsibility on himself. perhaps he had been wrong in making that impassioned speech at the governors conference in memphis which, he was sure, had swung the weight of opinion in favor of the pact of resistance. certainly he had been wrong in recommending a farflung northern battle line, at the start of the war, which stretched from paducah, kentucky, north of nashville to knoxville, with its eastern anchor on the cumberlands.
it had been his idea that a defensive line so far north would give the south more time to mobilize behind it, would hold the rich industries of tennessee for the south, and would give the south a jumping off place for a strike across the ohio river. but the north had mobilized faster, and northern armies had crunched down through the southern defenses like paper.
now all west tennessee and a segment of mississippi was in federal hands. the southern defense in east tennessee had been forced back to the mountains around chattanooga. and his own troops had fallen back from stand after stand after the battle of nashville. even now, federal armour was reported to have crossed the tennessee river and be heading south-eastward toward columbia and lewisburg.
he hoped piquette had left winchester by now. perhaps he should not have kept his quadroon mistress with him through the constant danger of defeat, but with lucy way down in new orleans....
as the morning wore on, the guns thundered below him and the tanks rumbled across the tullahoma plain, spouting fire. several times his sergeant urged him to withdraw, out of danger, and return to headquarters, but he stayed. he wanted to direct this battle personally, giving his orders over the car radio.
a great pall of smoke hung over the battlefield. then the attack came, wave after wave of blue-clad infantry, pouring down from the north. tanks and planes supported them, and atomic artillery shells burst in the southern trenches. the grey lines began to crumble.
"colonel, throw in the 112th and the armored reserve, and let's try to get an orderly withdrawal to the alabama line," beauregard ordered into his microphone. he turned to his driver. "sergeant, i think you're right. we'd better get out of here."
the staff car swung around and headed back toward winchester over the bumpy highway. as it left the rise, beauregard swore fervently and reached for the microphone. from the west came a great cloud of dust and a mass of rumbling tanks. the federals had broken through the left flank at lynchburg.
jet planes streaked overhead from the north, flying low. the flash of exploding bombs and rockets was visible in winchester, ahead of them.
speaking swiftly into the microphone, beauregard glanced out of the car's back window.
"sergeant!" he yelled. "strafers!"
the driver twisted the wheel so quickly beauregard was thrown against the door. the speeding car leaped a ditch and bounced into the fields.
out the window, beauregard saw the jet swooping down at them like a hawk. it was a speck in the sky, and almost instantly it was on them in a terrifying rush.
he saw the flare of the rockets leaving the plane's wings, he felt the shock of a thunderous explosion, and the blackness engulfed him.
