1862 by Robert Conroy

Author:Robert Conroy [Conroy, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction / Historical
ISBN: 9780345482372
Publisher: Presidio Press
Published: 2006-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

LORD CARDIGAN WAS livid with anger. “Brigadier General Wolsey, I still don’t understand just what on earth behooved you to disband ten thousand Canadian militia and send them home. Don’t you realize, sir, that they could have inflicted tremendous harm on the Union forces?”

“My lord, the Canadians were but a mob. No, they weren’t even a mob,” Wolsey replied. He was not overly concerned by the tirade. Cardigan was noted for them and they seemed to be coming with greater and greater frequency of late. It was also a subject that had been discussed several times.

“So what if the Canadians were a mob,” Cardigan continued. The bit was firmly in his mouth. “So are the Americans. Two mobs hacking at each other is to our advantage. Not only would a number of Americans be killed, but so would some of the more outspoken Canadians. Perhaps even this fool McGee. By the way, where is he?”

“In Toronto, and making plans to go to Ottawa,” Wolsey said. “And I differ in your analysis of the Americans. What I saw was a well-equipped and well-trained army that moved with dispatch and authority. The only loss to the Americans would have been in ammunition, which would have been easily replaced.”

“Nonsense,” snapped Cardigan. “This is the same farcical group that failed so miserably at Bull Run and at Culpeper.”

“With respects, General,” said Wolsey, “this is the army that succeeded at Shiloh and elsewhere, not the Union army you equate with those two Union defeats. This, Lord Cardigan, is a most dangerous enemy.”

“Dangerous my arse,” muttered Cardigan, then, in a louder voice, “and what are they doing now? Nothing. They moved a few dozen miles closer to us and now they have stopped. Why? What has our intelligence had to offer?”

Wolsey had been briefed on that as well. Grant’s army had indeed pulled up about halfway between London and Hamilton and appeared to be entrenching. The British had limited scouting, but what little they’d managed indicated that the Union host was much smaller than they’d first thought. It occurred to Wolsey that Grant had possibly bluffed him at London, and that his army was well less than half the impossible “sixty thousand” that Colonel Hunter had so blithely mentioned.

It also galled the British generals that Canada was the only theater in which Union cavalry were operating effectively. Under men like Grierson, they acquitted themselves quite well. Elsewhere, they had difficulty staying on their horses.

Cardigan took a deep breath and calmed himself. “How many in a Union division?”

Wolsey blinked back his surprise. Didn’t the man even know that? “At full strength, twelve thousand men. However, a Union division is rarely at full strength and is frequently at far less than half that. Mr. Lincoln’s army has the curious habit of forming new divisions rather than sending replacements to old ones, while the Confederates do exactly the opposite. The result is that older, worn-down Union divisions are often quite small while Confederate divisions are quite large.”

“And how many Union divisions have we identified as being with Mr.

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