Sheridan came up the slope to army headquarters, hat gone, his uniform torn where a ball had plucked his shoulder, barely breaking the skin but now marked by a trickle of blood.
Grant stood silent, cigar clenched firmly in his mouth. 'The line is breaking," Sheridan announced. "I know, I can see that."
"They've split the front. Ord's boys to the north of the road, my division of blacks to the south." He paused.
"General, they fought like tigers. Held them back for an hour and a half."
Grant said nothing, just nodding.
"Sir, my entire corps is about to be flanked, pinned down by the river. Some of Ord's men mixed in. The rest were up on the right of my black division but have given way. Robertson is swinging on to my flank now. Early is crossing the ford and I think Scales is preparing to come down from the heights."
"Hold exactly where you are."
"Sir? They'll have three divisions coming up this road. They're coming up even now. Shouldn't I pull back to block?"
He pointed down the road toward Buckeystown and he was indeed right. What was left of Ord's command had broken, was coming back across the plateau. In a matter of minutes Hunt's batteries, unsupported yet by infantry, would be in the thick of that attack.
"Shouldn't I pull back, support Hunt?"
Grant shook his head.
"That railroad track, the ground around it, turn it into the Hornets Nest like at Shiloh. It will stop Lee cold for hours and he'll bleed out if he turns on it. You take command down there. Let me worry about here."
"It means I'll be cut off."
"Yes, it does," Grant said quietly. "At least for a while. You start moving back, though, and those boys will just keep moving and then start running. That's happened too many times in the past. They are to stand and hold their ground. That is your job. Let me deal with the rest."
"Yes, sir," Sheridan replied.
"You will hold throughout the day. Let him bleed out on you. Do you have extra ammunition?"
"Yes, sir. Twenty wagonloads during the night, about three hundred boxes of a thousand rounds each."
"You got a battery down there as well. Use them to fire down the tracks in both directions. Now go!"
Sheridan forced a grin, turned, and rode off.
Directly ahead, on the road toward Buckeystown he saw a division deploying out, coming forward, a staff officer shouting that it was McLaw.
"Let him come," Grant replied sharply, sat back down, tossed aside his cigar, and lit another one..