In the Woods

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The sergeant was trying to pay attention to everything - how the men were moving into the trees, how the lieutenant was doing, and, most importantly, the enemy. To his satisfaction, the men weren't bunching up, the lieutenant appeared to have shaken his earlier jitters, and, again most importantly, the enemy wasn't in sight yet.

As he moved up to his officer to tell him that this was a good place to set up, the young man  surprised him, calling out to the line of troops, "All right boys, settle in, mark your firing lanes, this is as good a spot as any to begin the battle."

Indeed it was a good spot, there was cover and concealment to the front, the company was in a natural depression running through the small forest. It put the men below the general level of the ground and provided good visibility to their front. This young officer was turning out to have a good eye for terrain.

"Good enough, Sergeant?"

"No Sir ... It's perfect. Do you want me on the other end of the line?"

"See that darker line to our front, where the brush is thicker?" the officer asked him.

"I see it sir, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If you're thinking open fire when the enemy pops out of that, then yes. We're on the same page, Sarn't."

"Great, I'll pass the word as I head to the flank."

"Carry on."

The major was growing concerned as the underbrush continued to thicken as his men moved into the trees. He was giving some thought to dismounting, perhaps rejoining the remainder of his battalion, his lead company commander was more than capable of handling things here.

Just as he decided to head back to the battalion, the underbrush cleared and his horse moved freely, she even seemed to be happy to be out of that mess of brambles and shrubs. He sat his mount and watched as the remainder of the company emerged into the more open part of the wood. His troops were quickly reordering themselves, he was proud of his boys, they ...

He heard the shout to his front, before his brain really registered what it had heard, billowing clouds of powder smoke issued along a line to his front, he perceived the flashes within the smoke an instant before he felt three distinct blows in succession.

One ball pierced his upper thigh and slammed into his horse, the second tore through his abdomen, winding him, the third ball hit his upper arm, then slanted up further when it hit bone. He didn't feel it when that ball smashed into his skull.

The major was dead before he hit the ground, his horse fell on top of him, thrashing briefly before it too died.

The captain saw his commander's mount topple an instant before he himself was hit. The ball spun him around hard enough that he fell. He could hear the screams of his men as they were being hit and driven back into the underbrush. Before losing consciousness he could hear his men returning fire, good boys he thought, good boys.

"Hold your fire!"

The enemy were falling back through the underbrush they had come out of, what was left of them anyway. A number of bodies could be seen on the ground, some still moving. The sergeant saw a party of men trying to pull a man out from under his horse. Though tempted to take them under fire, something inside of him stopped him. The other men on the line seemed to feel the same.

Heading back down the line to his lieutenant, he felt a moment of panic when he saw the man's bloody sleeve.

"Sir, are you hit?"

"Ball just grazed the skin, ruined my damned jacket though."

"Let me have a look ..."

"I fixed him up, Sarge. Bit more than a graze, but he'll live. Might want to see the surgeon."

The company armorer said that as he handed the lieutenant a canteen. "Drink that, Sir, it'll take the edge off. Sarge, can we talk?"

Looking puzzled, the sergeant nodded then followed the armorer back a few paces from the line, "What's up, Guns?"

"The boys fired off an awful lot of ammo, we need a resupply, soon. Also, I was out on the flank to see if the rest of the battalion had come up yet."

"And?"

"They have not, but there's an enemy light company moving up on our right, if our guys don't come up soon, they'll be in our rear."

"Why didn't you want the Lieutenant to hear that?"

"I wanted to let him settle down a bit before dumping a new problem in his lap. Kid's good, but he's young, didn't want to rattle him."

"What's in the canteen? Medicinal spirits?"

"Something like that," the armorer grinned.

The sergeant major had managed to rally the remnants of the light company which had gone into the woods. The senior surviving man was a very young lance corporal. He took him aside.

"What happened in there, Corp?"

"We come out of a thicket like, the forest kind of opened up once you got past the edge. As we're forming up we took a volley, then another. The lads were getting ready to return fire when someone noticed that the Major was down. Captain got the boys settled down, then he got hit, bad. Don't know what happened to 'im."

Looking around, the sergeant major counted maybe twenty-two or twenty-three survivors milling about. These boys were out of it for now.

"Corp, it's your company for now, form 'em up and march them to the rear. You'll be in reserve. Get your boys under control, have 'em eat something unless they've gobbled their rations down already, Ill try and scare something up when I get the chance, but we're a little busy right now."

The young lance corporal took a deep breath, for a moment it almost looked as if he was going to cry, but he composed himself. "Will do, Sergeant Major."

"THIRD COMPANY! ON ME!"

Though his voice cracked at the end of that command, the men of the shattered company fell in as ordered.

Turning back to the front to find his colonel, he heard a whistling overhead. He turned to see a solid shot plow into the ground then bounce back up and slam into the reformed Third Company, Those men flung their weapons down and ran.

Damn it, they've brought up their guns!

The lieutenant had nodded his head, then gave the armorer five men. "Head out to where you saw the enemy coming up on the flank, take 'em under fire, that'll give them pause. If they come on, run back and let me know. We'll have to fall back."

"Sir!"

He saw his sergeant watching him, "Something on your mind, Sarge?"

"The boys could use more ammo. We shot off a lot of rounds in that first attack. We weren't even carrying a full load."

"Well, if needs be, have the lads take care with their shots, we're stuck here until relieved, or overrun."

At that moment, both men heard the thump of artillery firing. It was hard to tell what direction it was from in the woods, but the sergeant was pretty sure it was to their right rear, where they had been initially positioned.

"Ours?" the lieutenant asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Might be."

The colonel saw his initial attack breaking up in the face of the enemy artillery, one battery already in action, two more being brought up. Before he could order his light battalion to fall back, their officer, the senior surviving captain, had already used his initiative to order that movement.

"Sir!"

"I know, Sergeant Major, I know. I'm falling back too. Damn it, but those fellows got their guns into action quickly."

"Yessir, right smartly handled they are. We should send ..."

"I've sent a galloper back to find our division and ask for orders. We'll pull back just past that small rise," gesturing at the small ridge they'd crossed earlier, "and wait to see what happens. At least there we'll be out of that fellow's line of fire."

"Three batteries, he has to have at least a division up ..." the sergeant major's remarks were punctuated by an enemy ball screaming overhead.

"And we need to make ourselves less conspicuous!"

Turning their horses, the two men galloped to the rear.