Jack: Book 3 in the Trilogy

By gdorion

574 2 0

"A rollicking adventure!" The trilogy is now complete. I plan to publish Jack: Book 3, by August 1, 2017 as... More

The Prayer Part 1
Home Part 2
Captain Who? Part 3
Potwalloper or Navigator? Part 4
Destination Senegal or Cape Verde Islands? Part 5
Cape Verde Days Part 6
Morris Part 7
Hard to Starboard Part 8
Chameleon Part 9
Red, White & Blue Part 10
'Ahoy there!' Part 11
Santiago Island Part 12
The Whalebone Inn Part 13
A Plan of Our Own Part 14
The Ruse Part 15
Prepare for Battle Part 16
Full Speed Ahead to Senegal 17
My Idea Part 18
Battle Stations Part 19
Barrage Part 20
Bijagos Islands, Bissau Guinea Part 21
Jamaica Bound Part 22
A New Adventure Part 23
"Don't Applaud, Just Clap for a Few Hours" Part 24
A Matter of Trust Part 25
Storm Clouds Part 26
Gun-running? Part 27
Opportunity Knocks Part 28
Nasty Business Part 29
Slaves Again Part 30
Kingston, Jamaica Part 31
"Captain Jackie"Part 32
"A Real Pickle" Part 33
A Good Boy Part 34
An Overseer Part 35
Home Part 36
War is Hell Part 37
'Jackie My Love' Part 38
Mama Part 39
Pendleton's Last Stand Part 40
War and Women Part 41
Another Brilliant Plan Part 42
Molly Saves the Day Part 43
War Talk Part 44
The Army of Northern Viriginia Part 45
Dixie & Mike's Revenge Part 46
Gettysburg, Pa., 1863. Part 48
Death and Dying Part 49
We'll Meet Again Someday Part 50

General Robert E. Lee Takes Over - Part 47

5 0 0
By gdorion

                                               Army of Northern Virginia


When we first joined we were assigned to the "Confederate Army of the Potomac" under the direct authority of Colonel J.B. Kershaw, who commanded the 2nd South Carolina division. This was In April, 1861.

We drilled and drilled on parade grounds in the rain and sun - all day, every day. Jack, Mike and I had been with the Army of the Potomac for over a year before it became the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee who assumed command on June 1, 1862. 

But before that, we were about to see action in the first major battle of the American civil war. Southern President Jefferson Davis was consolidating the Army of Northern Virginia into the primary confederate army in the eastern theater.

Before we even had time to absorb the training lessons we were marching north to the battlefield,  the initial one being the First Battle of Manassas which began on July 21, 1861. Three months of training and we all thought we were ready to conquer the north all by ourselves. The northern union armies named that first fight the First Battle of Bull Run. Each side received a rude awakening that day as to what that war was going to be about.

Both union and southern armies mostly were untrained and unready for battle but were thrust into the fray anyway. The south was fortunate to have squeaked out a victory after reinforcements arrived by train. It buoyed the men's morale as loud cheers from our side contrasted with the flight of the Yankees who ran in terror from the battlefield.

Even as we had our first taste of victory the three of us were scared to death - even Jack. All of us southerners, I guess, had to kill a man for the first time that day.

"Kill or be killed, sonny boy," said Jack to us. "Don't think about it. Just do it! I don't want to have to be a'draggin' your asses off the damn field - dead!"

Nothing had prepared us for the horrors of the battlefield and for the realization that whizzing musket bullets could take your eye out or worse and whining cannonballs could take your head off. Indeed, we all witnessed comrades and enemy soldiers mutilated by the weapons of modern war.

A year after First Manassas, Lee assumed command and Jack, Mike and I were excited as was everyone in our ranks to have General Lee as our general. It gave us hope that the war would soon end. Little did we know then. It would go on for three more years  with increasing horror.

"Now we'll whip those Yankees,' Jack said on the day that General Lee rode his big white horse in front of our boys. We stood firm at attention, but were an already-ragged army of southerners whose tattered shoes and boots were beginning to the tale of the southern struggle for its new country, The Confederate States of America.

"Just wait and see. We'll whip 'em good now!" Jack predicted.

First Battle of Manassas, Virginia, also known  by the Union Army as First Battle of Bull Run. produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,  College of Education, University of South Florida.



Continue Reading

You'll Also Like

6.3K 427 30
Book 2 Amelia Hemmings is now an established businesswoman, even though she had only been at it for a few weeks. Word goes far, quickly. She almost i...
9.2K 320 44
Driven by the promise of vengeance and the darkness in her past, the assassin Eryn Turner strives for justice. This includes the hunt for Edward Kenw...
3.4K 71 7
(A/N: The main military faction I'm using is called the 'Union of American Continents'. You can find it my story book titled 'My Military Factions' t...
27.5K 1.5K 61
[[A slow burn OCxArthur story with both new and original characters]] They say the best things in life are unplanned. But sometimes... they're the wo...