The Last Full Measure by Jack Campbell

is in sight. They’re marching in good form. Either the corporal forgot to mention it or Colonel Lee has already received reinforcements. There are two cannon accompanying Lee’s force. Light horse artillery, but it can’t be discounted.”
    “Does it look like five hundred infantry?” Chamberlain asked.
    “Very like that,” Armistead confirmed, pivoting to study the situation to the southeast. “It appears all of the regular cavalry is heading for the gap and the town. John Buford is going to have his hands full.” Then Armistead sighed sadly, surprising Chamberlain. “There’s Stuart. It’s got to be him. I never thought to be fighting against Lee and Stuart as well. Bad enough to be fighting the United States Army, but to have it led by those I once served beside makes it worse.”
    Chamberlain and Armistead stood there in the road, while the regular infantry marched closer, Chamberlain feeling ridiculously exposed. “Do you think when they see us here they will move west and come up the Taneytown road as we did?” Chamberlain asked.
    Armistead shook his head. “No, sir. I do not consider it likely. Colonel Lee’s first move will certainly be an attempt to sweep us aside with as little delay as possible. Marching across the fields toward the Taneytown road will take time, and we could easily shift our own frontage to meet him there since we would have far less ground to cover. Regular forces also tend to have contemptuous attitudes toward volunteers. That and Lee’s need for speed will work against a flanking maneuver with his infantry. He will come straight at us.”
    A farmhouse stood perhaps a quarter mile down the pike on the east side of the road, and as Chamberlain watched the regulars marched even with the farmhouse, then came to a halt. The two cannon stopped behind them but the men riding the caissons made no moves to unlimber the guns. Another roar of gunfire arose to the northeast, this time tapering off into sustained shooting punctuating the blare of bugles. Armistead, his field glasses to his eyes again, shook his head. “Stuart’s companies are sounding the charge, just as Buford predicted. They’re charging into the town, while Buford’s men are dismounting and taking up positions behind cover and in houses. Stuart is going to try to defeat Buford’s force on Buford’s chosen ground, but Buford won’t oblige him with a traditional cavalry fight. Stuart has blundered, but he and Lee have also both just made a more serious error.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Stuart’s cavalry could have felt out our numbers and our positions, then the cavalry could have galloped to the Taneytown road and up it while Lee’s infantry held us pinned here. Neither Lee nor Stuart wants to take the time needed to reconnoiter us, and so they have to assume we have someone blocking the Taneytown road as well. But because they rushed to battle before scouting out our positions, their cavalry is now tied down fighting in a place they didn’t expect to encounter resistance and they know nothing of our positions on this hill.” Armistead lowered his field glasses. “Always try to learn as much about the enemy as you can before you make your plans, Captain Chamberlain.”
    “I will remember that, sir.”
    “See that you do. That is what Hancock, Longstreet, Buford and you and I did. You would be surprised how many professionals fail to recall the necessity of taking the enemy into account before they decide on a course of action, though.”
    The infantry on the road stood in ranks in the hot sun, waiting. Chamberlain could see officers on horseback riding up to each other, possibly discussing the gunfire being heard from over the hill where Buford was tying down Stuart. He was peering at them as if that would allow him to discern their intentions when Sergeant Maines spoke behind him. “Begging your pardon, Major Armistead and Captain Chamberlain, but we have another volunteer.”
    Chamberlain turned along