A Stillness at Appomattox (123 page)

Which
is
to
say
that
not
one
of
the
seven
knew
anything at
all
about
artillery.
When
the
inspecting
colonel
from
General
Halleck's
staff
came
out
to
look
at
the
defenses
he learned
that
neither
Private
Spink
nor
any
of
the
men
with him
even
knew
how
to
load
the
guns,
let
alone
fire
them. This
was
quite
natural,
since
they
had
been
trained
strictly as
infantry,
but
the
colonel
wondered
what
they
would
do
if the
invading
Confederates
showed
up
across
the
river
and tried
to
march
over
into
the
national
capital.
He
asked
the nearest
officer—a
Veteran
Reserve
Corps
lieutenant,
who with
sixty-three
men
was
responsible
for
this
whole
section of
the
defenses—and
the
lieutenant
had
a
ready
answer.
In such
case,
he
said,
he
would
have
his
men
remove
the
planks of
the
bridge
flooring,
and
pile
them
up
in
a
barricade
at the
Washington
end.
He
would
also
close
the
gates
which gave
access
to
the
bridge.
He
understood,
further,
that
one of
the
western
piers
of
the
bridge
had
been
mined
so
that
it could
be
blown
up,
but
when
the
inspector
looked
into
it
he found
that
this
was
not
true.

It
would
have
been
unfair
to
blame
any
of
this
on
the
Reserve
lieutenant
or
the
acting
ordnance
sergeant,
since neither
man
was
in
any
way
responsible.
But
the
condition of
things
in
their
part
of
the
line
was
fairly
typical
of
the condition
elsewhere.
The
next
bridge
downstream,
for
instance,
was
Aqueduct
Bridge
in
Georgetown,
and
it
was guarded
by
two
dozen
men
under
a
Reserve
captain.
This man
said
that
if
attacked
he
would
close
the
gates
of
the bridge
at
the
Georgetown
end.
He
believed
there
were
heavy bars
lying
around
somewhere,
although
he
had
never
tried them
to
see
whether
they
would
fit
the
staples
in
the
gate
and stockade.
The
inspector
took
the
trouble
to
find
them
and
test them.
They
did
fit.
Comforted
by
that
much,
he
went
his way.

On
the
land
front,
the
chief
engineer
of
the
Department of
Washington
reported
with
military
horror
that
brush
was growing
all
over
the
approaches
to
the
line,
in
such
quantities
that
attacking
troops
could
easily
get
quite
close
to
the parapet
under
cover.
He
urged
strongly
that
details
be
assigned
to
cut
this
brush
and
provide
the
defense
with
a
clear field
of
fire.
At
about
the
same
time
a
War
Department
major
general
who
had
access
to
the
White
House
told
President
Lincoln
that
the
Rebels
were
really
getting
close
and that
"An
enterprising
general
could
take
the
city."
He
said that
when
he
mentioned
all
of
this
to
General
Halleck
he was
told
that
the
responsibility
was
Grant's
and
not
Hal
leck's.
This
worried
the
major
general,
because
Grant
was quite
busy
down
in
front
of
Petersburg,
and
he
told
the
President
that
Halleck
seemed
very
apathetic.
Mr.
Lincoln nodded.

"That's
his
way,"
he
said.
"He
is
always
apathetic."
¹
It
was
a
bad
time
for
apathy,
because
the
approaching Confederates
were
under
the
command
of
Jubal
Early,
who was
nothing
if
not
enterprising.
He
had
been
moving
down the
Shenandoah
Valley
ever
since
General
Hunter
retreated from
the
vicinity
of
Lynchburg,
and
he
had
perhaps
15,000 men
with
him—veteran
troops
as
good
as
any
in
the
land, their
number
magnified
by
panic
rumor
to
practically
any
figure
which
a
frightened
imagination
cared
to
think
of.

The
Washington
defenses
were
extremely
strong
if
there were
men
to
hold
them.
Much
time
and
money
had
been spent
on
them,
beginning
'way
back
in
the
McClellan
era, and
they
had
been
laid
out
according
to
the
best
military standards
of
the
day.
From
the
banks
of
the
Potomac
northwest
of
Chain
Bridge,
all
the
way
around
the
city
to
the
Potomac
shore
opposite
Alexandria,
the
lines
ran
in
a
ponderous
unbroken
horseshoe,
with
a
fort
on
every
hill,
trenches connecting
the
forts,
and
heavy
guns
posted
to
cover
all
the ground
out
in
front.
Over
on
the
Virginia
side
it
was
the same,
with
another
semicircle
of
works
running
from
above Chain
Bridge
down
to
the
lower
edge
of
Alexandria.
No
one could
approach
the
city
from
any
direction
without
running into
powerful
fortifications.
Yet
fortifications
needed
soldiers in
order
to
be
effective,
and
now
the
soldiers
were
lacking.