"'We'?"

"Before you arrived here, sir." Ewell shifted uncomfortably.

Pete fished in his pocket for a match and struck it against the side of the table, puffing his cigar to life.

"You know that I always seek the advice of my commanders," Lee replied evenly. "Go ahead."

"Our opportunity for a decisive victory here is finished, sir."

Lee could feel his features flush. He lowered his eyes, looking back at the map.

"I don't see it that way, General Longstreet," he finally replied.

The tension in the room was palpable, hanging in the air like the smoke coiling up from Pete's cigar. No one dared speak.

"Do you know why we are here?" Lee finally asked. "Sir?"

"Here, gentlemen, here," and his voice rose slightly as he stabbed down with a fingertip, pointing at Hotchkiss's map of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

No one spoke.

"Three weeks ago, before we started this campaign, you know that I met with President Davis. Gentlemen, you might be filled with confidence, it is fair to say that our President is confident, but I tell you we are starting to lose this war."

"Sir, that is not true," Stuart interjected heatedly. "Those Yankees run whenever we… hit them."

"General Stuart, hear me out!"

Stuart, crestfallen, lowered his head.

"Dispatches from Richmond arrived only three days ago indicating that Vicksburg will most likely fall within the week. You've seen the newspapers we've taken up here; they're already proclaiming the victory.

"In central Tennessee, Bragg is falling back. Before the summer is out, Chattanooga will be threatened; and if that falls, Atlanta will soon be on the front line. A Union army has landed before Charleston, and even now they are closing the ring on that city.

"General Stuart, I have already heard that you captured a hundred and twenty wagons outside of Washington and that is what slowed your march."

Stuart puffed up slightly, but a glance at his commander warned him to silence.

"How desperate are we for supplies when a hundred wagons and their mules become a major prize?"

No one spoke.

"Don't you see that they can replace those wagons in a day? If tonight we had captured that accursed hill and had taken every gun on it, a day later their foundries would cast a hundred more guns to replace them. Their blockade is strangling us as surely as an executioner's rope."

Lee stepped back from the map table, arms folded, right hand absently rubbing his left shoulder. "We must finish this, and there is only one way to do it Ours is the only army of the South capable of ending it We must seek the battle of annihilation. We must bring out the Army of the Potomac and crush it No more Fredericksburgs, Chancellorsvilles, or Manassases. We must achieve a Saratoga, a Yorktown, a Waterloo."

As he spoke the last words, Lee brought his clenched fist down on the table, startling Ewell, who looked at him with surprise. -

"Defeat the Army of Potomac in detail, force the surrender of their commander, then march on Washington. Even then it will not be over. But it will turn the tide. Such a victory will break the political alliance that Lincoln is barely holding together in Congress. Perhaps, with the Lord's blessing, it would mean, as well, that England and France will at last recognize our government and move to lift the blockade."

He paused, lowering his head, attention again fixed on the map;

"That is why we are here," he whispered. "It's not to seek a half victory; it is to end this war now."

He nodded toward the open window racing the Carlisle Road.

"Those boys out there, they are not immortal. They are mere flesh and blood. They have trusted us with their lives; and we, gentlemen, God save us, are empowered to trade those lives for what we believe in. I will not trade one more life for half a goal, half a victory that simply leads to defeat.

"Realize this. We have but one good fight left in us. We lost fifteen thousand men at Chancellorsville." He hesitated, "And we lost Jackson… then we let them get away. We cannot afford one more battle like that That is why I want it to end here, today."

"General, today we lost eight thousand men," Longstreet said softly, voice calm, almost like a distant echo.

"God save us, I know."

"And taking those hills south of town, we'll lose eight thousand more."

Lee looked up at him.

"Don't you mink I know that as well? Our goal is their army, to defeat it to finish it and there will be a bloody price in the doing of it"

"We fought a good fight here today," Longstreet replied, "but the final price, sir, that last charge negated our gains."

"We smashed two of their corps," Lee replied sharply, and then hesitated. 'They also lost John Reynolds, one of their best"

"A good man, John." Hill sighed, the first words that had escaped him.

'They checked us though, sir," Pete continued, pushing in. "The last assault…"

His words trailed off. Lee knew. Pete was always talking about the defensive, of letting them attack.

"That hill, sir," Longstreet finally continued, "I couldn't have picked better ground. Sir, you spoke against just such an assault only this morning up at Cashtown, and yet we nevertheless charged into such a position just before sundown."

Lee nodded, looking at Longstreet. Yes, that was true. That morning seemed like an age ago. Yes, the land before Cashtown was indeed the same. He nodded for Pete to continue.

"I came to agree with you there, sir, back at the base of the South Mountains. Yes, we do need to seek the final battle, but what happened here this evening ended that chance for this battlefield. Sir, the Union army is concentrated here. We try to flank to that hill south of town here, and in an hour they can shift an entire corps to it, and we are faced with the same problem yet again…"

Lee started to speak, to point to the two hills south of town; but as he looked at Pete, he fell silent

Jackson is gone, he realized yet again. I always listened to Jackson, trusted him; even when he foiled before Richmond, I still listened. If this were Jackson before me, offering an objection to a plan, I would listen. I must realize that; otherwise why have commanders who can think? I know now I must take more direct control of this army. His gaze drifted to Hill, then to Ewell, then finally back to Longstreet Longstreet is now my right arm more than any other.

"Go ahead, General Longstreet"

"You were focused on that hill, that cemetery. We all were. It was so damn close. We just had to get to the other side, and we thought we could win. Sir, I, too, was caught by it I saw the tail end of the assault and for a moment I believed we would take it; then their guns, sir, their guns just shredded our lines. And, sir, those guns will still be there tomorrow morning, dug in deeper and resupplied."

Lee nodded slowly. "But I must ask, sir, what is on the other side of that hill?"

Longstreet looked over at Stuart and then to Jed Hotchkiss. "They have two lines of retreat from the far side of that hill" and as he spoke Longstreet traced out the roads back to Westminster and Taneytown. "Sir, it would have been yet another partial victory. Some, perhaps most, of the Yankees would have gotten out along those two roads. And then we would have to fight them again."

He pointed down to the map of Gettysburg and the hills south of town.

"We do this attack tomorrow; and after we take those hills, then what? The road to Baltimore will still be open, and they will retreat Even if they abandon the army's immediate supply trains, they will get out dig in someplace else, and men we'll have to attack yet again."

Lee, staring again at the map, did not speak.

"Sir, it's defensive. This ground is defensive. Beyond that there is no barrier we can pin them against to finish it Jeb and his boys might dream of a glorious sabre charge to wipe them out once we get them running, but it won't happen."