Battle For Atlantis Read online

  Meade took the pencil from his engineer as soon as the man was done. The commanding general quickly delineated corps responsibilities on the paper along with specific orders. “Copies to each corps commander,” he told his adjutant.

  Throughout the morning, Meade had never even considered attacking. Lincoln’s admonition still stayed with him. And he thought the commander-in-chief’s advice to be quite sound. Meade would let lee come to him.

  **********

  Lee was also looking at the terrain and issuing orders from his position on Seminary Ridge. He also saw what Meade in his excitement had not paid enough attention to--that the Union line extended south only to the end of Cemetery Ridge, but did not encompass the two Round Tops.

  “General Longstreet,” lee called out.

  His senior corps commander was drinking some coffee from a battered tin cup. He carne over, large hands cradled around the warm metal. “Sir.”

  “Wait a moment,” lee said as a junior officer he’d sent off at first light to conduct a reconnaissance appeared.

  The officer rode up and saluted. “General.”

  “Your report, captain?”

  “The two hills are unoccupied, sir. The nearest Union · forces are about a half mile away and digging in, showing no indication of moving.”

  “Very good.” As the captain left, Lee turned to Longstreet. “Take your divisions south and then attack northeast and seize those hills. Once you have them, I will coordinate for Hill’s corps to attack on the Union center while you force his flank. Ewell will hold our left; and then once the enemy begins to break, I will send him against Culp’s Hill.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Lee put a hand on Longstreet’s arm. “You must make your preparations and movement undetected. I do not want the Union to know your objective.”

  Longstreet frowned as he looked to the south. “It’s pretty open land there. I’d have to swing wide, behind this ridge. That will take some time.”

  “Take the time,” Lee said. “The Federals have interior lines. If they know your objective, they can get there first.”

  “Sir.”

  Lee looked tired in the early morning light, his face tight and drawn. “Yes?”

  “Let me go straight for the hills,’ Longstreet suggested. “By the time the Federals react, I’U have them. With two divisions, I could hold them against three Union corps.”

  “Please do as I’ve ordered, general,” Lee said.

  Longstreet realized the discussion was over. He saluted and headed for his horse.

  **********

  The corps that Meade had given the left flank to was General Sickles’s. He, unlike the other generals, was not impressed with Cemetery Ridge, especially as the southern end was the lowest. He felt the slight incline was vulnerable and looking to his front saw an elevation on which there was a peach orchard, which he felt would provide his corps with a better defensive position.

  Seizing the initiative, Sickles ordered his corps forward to occupy the peach orchard before the Confederates could take what he now considered very important terrain. So the Union left flank began to march to a position a half mile in front of the rest of their forces.

  The next corps commander up the line was shocked to see his own flank becoming exposed as Sickles’s men moved forward. He sent a messenger to Meade to inform him of this potentially disastrous turn of events. By the time Meade rode down to straighten things out, literally, it was too late. Sickles’s corps was already occupying the peach orchard and was in contact with the Confederates.

  Meade demanded of Sickles why he had moved forward, beyond the positions, which Meade had personally drawn on the map that morning.

  Sickles’s response was Straightforward. “Sir, this is favorable high ground.”

  Meade had slept less than an hour in the past several days and had little patience. “General, this is indeed higher than the ground you were on. But”-- Meade pointed to the west--“there is higher ground yet in front of you and if you keep advancing you will find constantly higher ground all the way to the mountains!”

  Meade could feel the excitement he’d experienced earlier in the morning as he’d reviewed his positions start to slip away as the sound of firing began to rise from the peach orchard. Sickles’s foolish move had apparently cast away the advantage.

  **********

  In reality, Sickles’s foolish move turned out, in the freakish way of combat, to save the day for the Union forces as Longstreet’s corps ran right into a Union force in the peach orchard where they had expected nothing but a clear road on their circuitous route to assault the Round · Tops.

  Like Meade, Longstreet cursed as he heard the firing at the front of his columns. To follow Lee’s orders, he’d been forced to turn his corps around and march back up the Chambersburg Pike to the northwest to get out of sight of the Federals. Then he’d turned his troops south. This had taken him the better part of the day and it was now afternoon as his men ran into the unexpected Union presence.

  His lead division commander, General Hood, realized the situation immediately. He saw the undefended gap between the Union forces in the peach orchard and the main line and the two Round Tops still unoccupied. He sent a runner back to Longstreet, requesting that he be allowed to change directions and attack through the gap, straight for the hills, even as his forces become more and more embroiled with Sickles’s corps.

  The answer was no.

  Hood sent a second runner.

  The answer was no. Longstreet was determined to follow Lee’s orders to the letter.

  Hood sent a third runner with a note, officially protesting the order, something he had never done in two years of heavy combat.

  The answer again was no.

  Hood decided to ignore his orders and do what his military common sense told him, but he had already lost valuable hours requesting permission.

  **********

  Amelia Earhart came out of the eight-foot-high black circle, floating less than six inches above the ground. She was in a forest Alone. She unsealed the Valkyrie suit and carefully stepped out onto the ground. Behind her, the gate that had opened slowly shrunk to a small dot and disappeared. She had to hope that the Ones Before would open it back up again when she needed to leave.

  She cocked her head. there was thunder in the distance.

  She looked about as she removed the plastic case from the Valkyrie’s pack. She needed a place to hide the suit. She decided the easiest thing to do would be to put it where people didn’t ordinarily look--up. First she hid the plastic case with the skulls between some boulders, piling leaves on top of it.

  Then, climbing a tree, she pulled the suit up on a short tether and secured it Ii~ in a lee, pretty much out of sight from the ground. She paused high in the branches, remembering how as a child she used to climb trees all the time in her first attempts at getting up in the sky. She’d always enjoyed being above the ground. She was close to the summit of the hill and through the adjoining trees she could see some of the land around her, She was just below the crest of the bill, on the southern side. To the south was another hill, slightly higher. Earhart cocked her head. The thunder was persistent and she finally realized it wasn’t thunder. It was cannon fire.

  Then she knew exactly where she was. Little Round Top.

  **********

  Jeb Stuart was finally back. There was firing all along the front as Stuart arrived, exhausted from five straight nights of marching. Lee’s staff fell silent as the dust-covered · cavalry commander rode up. the stare with which Lee greeted Stuart was as cold as any had ever seen their commander give.

  “General Stuart, Where have you been?” He didn’t give Stuart a chance to immediately respond. “I have not heard a word from you in days, and you are the eyes and ears of my army.”

  Stuart stiffened. “I have brought you one hundred and twenty-five wagons and their teams, General.”

  “Yes, General, but they are an impediment to me now.”
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br />   Stuart’s head dropped and all in earshot turned away, pretending not to bear. As if sensing the profound effect his harshness had had, and that the battle was far from over, Lee stepped forward and put a tender hand on his cavalry commander’s shoulder. “Let me ask your help now. We will not discuss this any further. Help me defeat these people.”

  **********

  The lead units in Hood’s division were two regiments from Alabama. They made a beeline for Big Round Top, and except for a handful of Union snipers that they quickly ran off, found the hill undefended. They charge up the hill and took it in a few minutes.

  The commander of the Fifteenth Alabama looked over to the next hill, little Round Top, and saw no activity on it. it. His men were tired from charging up the hill, so he gave the order for a short period of rest before they would resume the attack and seize Little Round Top.

  **********

  There were some Union soldiers on Little Round top, not far from where Amelia Earhart was hiding her Valkyrie suit. Meade had not completely ignored his left flank and sent his chief engineer, General Warren, there to ascertain the terrain and the possibilities for defense.

  Warren was astounded to find only a handful of signalmen on the hill, and these were preparing to leave hastily as they had seen the gray wave sweep up Big Round Top and knew they were next. Warren ordered the signalmen to stay in position and sent runners off, one to Meade and the other to Sickles, recommending that troops be sent immediately to hold Little Round Top.

  Once more luck and good leadership played a role as · one of the runners passed by Colonel Vincent’s Third Brigade. Vincent had the runner show him the message he carried and recognized the importance. Disregarding the orders he had received earlier, Vincent ordered his thirteen hundred men toward Little Round Top, at double time, with Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s twentieth Maine in the lead.

  **********

  From her vantage point, Earhart saw it all unfold and with what she had studied on the flight from San Diego to the Devil’s Sea Gate, she knew the history of what she was witnessing.

  A wave of blue came rushing in from the east and raced up the hill and then partly down the western and southern sides, halting in a thin defensive line. Directly below Earhart was the Twentieth Maine, now the southern-most end of the Union line, facing to the south 1D a curving line.

  Fewer than five minutes after Chamberlain’s troops arrived in position, the Confederates from Big Round Top arrived at the base of the hill and began charging up the steep incline, weaving their way through the trees, undergrowth and boulders.

  The men from Alabama ran right into the men of Maine. At stake was the entire fate of the Union Army, because if the Confederates could turn the Twentieth Maine, they would turn the flank of the Union Army and accomplish What Lee had set out in the morning to do.

  Earhart watched as the Confederates charged, to be met with close-range volley fire from the Union lines. The effete of the 50-caliber minie balls fired from the muzzle-loading rifles was devastating. Even a hit on an appendage caused so much trauma that many men died from such wounds. The screams of the wounded and dying mixed in with the rattle of musketry. Earhart felt as if she were in some strange, dream world as the air around her filled around him and gave his orders quickly, trying to take advantage of the brief lull before they were attacked again. The shocked looks on the company commanders reflected the audacity of Chamberlain’s plan. Despite their surprise and misgivings, the officers went back to their men and relayed the orders.

  Sunlight glinted off steel and the Maine fixed bayonets. With a yell, and Chamberlain in the lead, the left branch of the V, began to charge downhill. In less than ten seconds they were into the startled Confederates who were hiding behind trees and rocks, gathering their strength and courage for the next charge.

  Men finally broke. The Confederates had charged uphill, again and again, over the bodies of their comrades, into a withering fire, and they could take no more. The Rebel line broke and ran, the Twentieth Maine sweeping down among them.

  Earhart watched as I Confederate officer offered his sword to Chamberlain in surrender even as be pointed a pistol at the Union officer’s bead and pulled the trigger. The gun was empty and Chamberlain knocked it from his hand, sending him back with the detail that was gathering the prisoners.

  Little Round Top was clear of Confederates and the Union left flank was secure.

  Earhart stayed hidden in her tree and hoped that when nightfall came she could climb down and reclaim the skulls. This brutal fighting had to have charged them, of that she had little doubt.

  She wanted no more of this fighting.

  **********

  The news coming from Pennsylvania was spotty at best. Lincoln sorted through telegrams, but could not get a feel for what was happening, as many of them were contradictory. The South was attacking in some. The North in others. Meade was retreating. No, Lee was retreating. Stuart was reported riding on Washington.

  “Tomorrow,” Mary said.

  “More death?”

  “Yes,” Mary confirmed. “But also hope.”

  EARTH TIMELINE--XIV

  Southern Africa, 21 January 1879

  Wrong. Ahana remembered Amelia Earhart’s last words to her before they parted; that she had to be going to a better place than Gettysburg. And she now knew those words were dead wrong.

  Ahana came out of the gate into night, but there was enough moon light to see that she was surrounded by thousands of Zulu warriors. Cries of alarm were sounded at the sudden apparition of the white creature coming out of the black circle, floating a few inches above the ground.

  Within seconds she was encircled by a ring of warriors brandishing short, wide bladed spears. One jabbed it forward, the point bouncing off the Valkyrie suit armor. The blow slowly spun Ahana about and as she turned she could see that she was in a valley and the ground was literally covered with warriors, thousands and thousands of them.

  She brought the suit under control and raised her arms in the universal signal of surrender, but that didn’t stop a half dozen warriors from trying to skewer her. Their efforts were to no avail, as the blades didn’t even scratch the hard white shell she was encased in.

  After several minutes the warriors moved back, leaving a ten-foot-wide empty. Circle around her. Ahana wasn’t certain what to do. The strange stalemate continued for thirty minutes before the circle parted and two people stepped forward. One was an old man, obviously someone of great importance given the deference the warriors showed him; the other was an old woman, wearing a long cloak and with a crystal amulet around her neck.

  The two had a rapid discussion with much waving of arms, before the old man barked out some orders. The circle around Ahana widened to fifty feet as the warriors pulled back, the old man going with them. The old woman remained and she mimicked Ahana’s gesture, raising her empty hands above her shoulders.

  With no other option, Ahana unsealed her suit and exited.

  If she was surprised to see a woman, an Asian woman at that, come out of the sui~ the old woman showed no surprise. She smiled and pointed at herself.

  “Shakan.”

  Ahana imitated the gesture. “Ahana.”

  The woman indicated she should follow. Ahana tethered her suit and the case attached to its back. She followed Shakan out of the valley, the warriors parting in front of them with many curious glances.

  Ahana had no idea where she was. Although between the warriors and the terrain she suspected somewhere in southern Africa. Given the weaponry the warriors bad, she also guessed she was sometime in the past.

  They came up out of the valley and Ahana could see they were now on a large east-west escarpment. There was a rocky hill to the right several miles away on which she could see the glow of campfires. There also seemed to be some activity, as torches ran to and fro. Shakan led her to the left, toward a conical hill.

  As they moved across the plain toward the hill, Ahana noticed that the eastern s
~ was beginning to lighten, bringing a new day.

  **********

  With Chelmsford gone, the camp at Isandlwana was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Pulleine. If things had been bad under Chelmsford, they were worse now as Pulleine had never seen combat. He also had the problem of guarding a camp that was much larger than the force that remained in it, as he still had the tents for the men who had marched off with Chelmsford.

  The camp sprawled over nine hundred yards long, along the front face of Isandlwana. Besides the tents, Pulleine was also saddled with over one hundred wagons and the animals that pulled them. He had five companies of the Twenty-fourth Infantry and nine companies of the Native Natal Contingent along with assorted other elements left to him.

  Pulleine wasn’t completely incompetent. He put out a screen of mounted troops to the north and east, along with a closer line of infantry pickets. As the sun rose, he spread his remaining troops along the line he had to hold. One of his company commanders pointed out that the line was spread too thin to offer an effective defense using volley fire--the forte of the British Army--but Pulleine pointed out that he had no other choice, short of leaving part of the camp uncovered.

  Shortly before 8:00 A.M., one of the mounted soldiers rode in from the· northeast reporting a large Zulu force moving across the Nqutu Plateau. Pulleine immediately sent a runner after Chelmsford and pulled in his infantry pickets, leaving the mounted men still out. He ordered stand to.

  Then came confusion as Colonel Durnsford finally arrived from Rorke’s Drift with his column. Given that Durnsford outranked Pulleine, there was some issue over who was in command. Worse, while Chelmsford had ordered Pulleine to hold his position, Durnsford did not feel those orders applied to him. Given that Durnsford not only · outranked him but was a more experienced officer, Pulleine was more than willing to hand over command to Durnsford. Durnsford dogged the issue by telling Pulleine that he and his command would not be staying in the camp. All could see small scattered parties of Zulu on the plains · to the east, and Dumsford was determined to ride out and clear the ground of the enemy.