Talons of Eagles by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page A

the balls went ripping off at ground level, doing terrible damage to tents, wagons, and people.
    The men of MacCallister’s Marauders all let out fearsome screams in the violence-shattered night and let their pistols bang into the running, milling, confused mass of Federal troops.
    When their pistols were empty, they headed for the river and the boats. They did not attempt to row, just lay flat on the bottom and let the current move them along downriver until the gloom of the cloudy night had swallowed them.
    They left behind them several hundred dead and wounded, a camp in shambles and confusion, and morale considerably lowered. Jamie and his Marauders made it back to their horses on the south side of the river and were quickly gone into the night.
    * * *
    Many Northern newspapers put out special editions with huge headlines, denouncing the assault as a COWARDLY ACT, a VICIOUS SNEAK ATTACK, and THUGS ATTACK SLEEPING UNION CAMP.
    â€œSomebody forgot to tell those editors that war is hell,” Jamie said, although the credit for that remark would be attributed to someone else.
    Then strategists in the Confederate camp decided it would be a good thing to let just a bit of news leak out about MacCallister’s Marauders and the actual number of men who had attacked the Union encampment.
    It was said that General Winfield Scott went into a rage upon hearing that only ten or so men were responsible for the terrible damage that was wreaked upon McDowell’s camp along the Potomac. Most Northern newspapers called the number false. Several Union generals loudly proclaimed that no ten ’hound dog Southerners’ could inflict that much damage on a Northern church choir, much less upon an armed camp. One of those generals was Thomas Thornbury, a pompous, lard-butt loudmouth who commanded a Pennsylvania home guard. Thornbury, who came from a very wealthy Philadelphia family, had commanded his small militia for years, and his rank was self-imposed. He had never experienced actual combat, but he did make good copy for the newspapers because he always had something outrageous to say. This time, Thornbury was quoted as saying, “If those yellow-bellied Southern riffraff ever come to Pennsylvania, I’ll personally kick their ignorant butts back across the Mason-Dixon line.”
    Jamie read with interest the remarks of General Thornbury. Then he sat in his tent for a time, deep in thought, a smile occasionally playing around his mouth. Without telling anyone what he had planned, Jamie met with Captains Sparks and Dupree, and in twos and threes, Marauders began quietly saddling up and riding out. Jamie took scissors and cut his long hair short, dyed what remained black, and laid out his good dark suit.
    When Lee was asked by one of his aides what MacCallister was up to, Lee was reported to have replied, “I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”
    Jamie left Satan and rode out of camp on a horse that had been deemed unfit as a cavalry mount—he would turn it loose once he got past enemy lines and to a train depot—and headed north. His handpicked men were already well on their way, posing as drummers, wandering itinerant laborers, and so forth. Jamie figured if he could successfully pull this off, he and his men would really tweak the noses of the Yankees.
    Safely past Yankee lines, Jamie turned his horse loose and bought a train ticket for Philadelphia. There were several of his own men on the same train, but they did not speak to one another and managed to find seats in different cars.
    Having initially ridden the steam cars much of the way to Washington to meet with Abe Lincoln, Jamie had gotten used to the railroads, but it still bothered him somewhat to be speeding along this fast. When the locomotive hit the flats, the driver really sped along. Jamie didn’t have any idea how fast they were going, but to his way of thinking, it was just too damn fast. It was unnatural. Progress was,