Chapter One

“What’s your name boy? And where did you get that rifle?” The sergeant was a large man and even his brand-new uniform did not seem capable of containing all of him.

“My name is Daniel Beauregard, sir, and this rifle was given me by my father.”

“Your father some sort of plantation owner? The rifle musta cost a pile o’ dollars.”

“No sir. I mean my father is no plantation owner and he won the rifle at poker.”

“You know how to shoot that rifle, boy?”

“Sure thing, sir, I used this rifle for a year and I can take out a squirrel at a hundred yards.”

“You can? I’m damned if I c’n see a squirrel at that distance. Get yourself into that squad over there and in future you call me ‘Sergeant’, you understand?”

“Yes sir, I mean, yes sergeant.” Daniel said as he hurried to join the squad.

“Now you men have to know that we are fixing to face up to the damned Yankees to show’em that we are Texans and nobody can push us Texans around.” The officer said as soon as the sergeant had reported that the squad was ready for inspection.

The officer was a fine looking young man dressed in a uniform that a good tailor had worked on. His name was Lieutenant William Hackett and he was straight from Westpoint.

“I know that you have not had any training as yet but the Yankees don’t care about that: they are fixing to fight us today. Most of you men have used rifled muskets before and if you haven’t you better learn how, pronto! Which of you counts himself as a good shot with a rifle?”

Daniel duly put up his hand along with about a dozen others.

“Okay,” The lieutenant said. “You men go with the sergeant so that he can rate your ability. The rest of you gather around me while I show you about the Springfield rifled musket.”

Daniel followed the Sergeant who led them into a field where ten targets had been set up at two hundred yards on the far end of the field. He numbered off the first ten men and told them to take their time and shoot for the bull’s eye.

Ramrods waved around as the first ten loaded their weapons and then began spasmodic firing.

The sergeant waited until all ten had fired and then went off to view the targets. He marked each bullet hole with a dab of red paint from a can standing close to the targets.

“Numbers two, five, seven and ten; go back to the lieutenant. You missed the target.”

“You three that haven’t fired yet, move up to the line and take your shots.”

Daniel moved up and loaded his rifle quickly. His shot was the first of the three to ring out.

“I told you to take your time, Beauregard! Why d’you fire so quickly?” Sergeant bellowed out.

“Sergeant, squirrels don’t sit around too long. You got to shoot quick or not at all.”

The sergeant marched up to the targets.

“Numbers one and two; go back to the lieutenant. You missed the target. Beauregard, your shot is plumb center. Re-load and try again at the first target this time.”

Daniel complied with the order and the sergeant inspected the target. “Plumb center again, Beauregard. What make of rifle musket is that?”

“It’s a British Whitworth, sergeant.”

“You stay by me, Beauregard. I think that the Colonel is going to want to speak to you. The rest of you men write down your names on this here list. The good news is that you are all going to be made instructors. That means extra pay and a nice new stripe to sew onto your sleeve.”

After dealing with the list, a number of the men had not learned to write and the sergeant had to record their names for them, the sergeant sent them back to the lieutenant and marched Daniel off to the colonel.

The colonel was a tall thin man that could have doubled for Abraham Lincoln except that his hair and beard were white. He was sitting on a good-looking black horse with a white star on its forehead.

“Colonel sir, this man is our best shot. He hit the target dead center both times. He is also the quickest at reloading.”

“What is your name young man?” The colonel asked kindly, from his high saddle.

“Daniel Beauregard, sir.”

“Beauregard? Any relation to the New Orleans Beauregards?”

“Not as far as I know, sir.”

“Very well then, tell me Beauregard, do you know anything about Yankee rank insignia?”

“Sir, I do not know what insignia means.”

“Did you not go to school, Beauregard?”

“Yes sir, clear to eighth grade then my father lost his money and I had to help work the farm.”

“Insignia are the chevrons there on the sergeant’s arm or these marks here on my uniform.”

“Oh yes sir, I’ve seen them before. I know sergeants and lieutenants but you are the first colonel I ever did see.”

“And do you think that you can pick out a lieutenant from a colonel at two hundred yards?”

“Yes sir, I surely can. Lieutenants are young and colonels are old.”

“That’s not a bad observation, lad. Let’s use that as a starting point. What if I was to instruct you to kill any Yankee that you see giving orders, could you do that?”

“Yes sir, I can do that.”

“And if I told you to pay special attention to the older ones, could you do that?”

“Sure thing, sir. How many of these Yankees do you want me to shoot, sir?”

“All of them, lad, but we will only get a chance to shoot a few before they are up to us. After that we work with our bayonets.”

“Sir, if I could have two more rifles and someone to load them for me, I could get three times the number of Yankees.”

“That’s a good idea, son. Sergeant, this young man is to be made to full corporal. He is to be free to roam wherever he can get his best shots. Give him extra rifles and a companion to reload for him.”

The sergeant led him away to the stores tent where he was supplied with two extra rifles, ammunition and a set of chevrons for his sleeve.

“Sergeant, could I have Billy Thorne as my loader?”

“Which one is he?”

“He was one of those that missed the target, sergeant.”

“Hell yes! Him you can have with pleasure!”

They returned in time to hear the lieutenant finish his lecture on how to face front and kill Yankees.

The sergeant explained to the lieutenant what the colonel had decided to do with Daniel.

“But sergeant this man is one of the youngest men we have. We need men with experience.”

“Sir, this lad hit the target plumb center - twice! Colonel has made him full corporal and orders that he is to be free to roam wherever he feels he can get the best shots.”

“Well, then keep him away from my men. I don’t want them to feel that they can do the same thing.”

“He wants Billy Thorne to be detached with him, sir.”

“Who here is Billy Thorne?” The lieutenant asked of the assembled company.

Billy stepped forward. “Go with the Corporal.” The lieutenant said and turned away.

Billy stood looking helplessly around him.

“Hey Billy!” Daniel said. “I’m the corporal. Come with me.”

“Danny, how come you a corporal already and also what in heck is a corporal?”

“According to what I understand of it, which isn’t much, a corporal is a sort of boss-man one step below a sergeant. The colonel made me a corporal on account of the fact that I am the best shot in our company. I’ve been ordered to move around and shoot as many Yankee officers as I can when they start their attack. I asked for you to be my loader so that while I am shooting off the rifles you are busy re-loading them.”

“Heck, Danny, I’m as good a shot as you are only I don’t have no Whitworth rifle like you got.”

“You such a good shot Billy, how is it that you missed the target altogether?”

“Just ain’t used to that Springfield rifle they give me to shoot with but iffen you had borrowed me that there Whitworth I woulda showed them some shooting.”

The two boys scrambled up the level topped ridge to find a suitable position overlooking their field of fire. Daniel chose a hollow behind a series of boulders that gave him a clear view of the meadow where the sergeant expected the Yankee cavalry to make their charge.

“Billy load these two Springfields as well as your own. You stay low down. We don’t need you to pick up any stray Yankee lead. I’m going to peek through this gap between the boulders. When I hand you a rifle, you give me a loaded one and then re-load the one I just fired. You get it?”

They had hardly settled in before the first shots were fired and the Yankees began their advance. They came in a great blue wave. The grey uniforms were outnumbered four to one and half of the ‘one’ were untrained boys dragged in from schoolrooms and given a rifle musket and parts of a uniform.

None of these statistics entered Daniel Beauregard’s head. He spotted a lieutenant on a horse at the head of his men and shot him out of the saddle at three hundred yards. Then he took down the sergeant but these casualties did not slow the advance one whit. These were trained soldiers moving under professional orders from competent officers.

Daniel scanned the rear ranks and spotted an older man carrying a sword at the ready and knocked him out of his saddle. The grey uniforms were beginning to take a toll of the blue front ranks as they came within the two hundred yard mark. The blue ranks were so solid at that point that even at that distance it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

No sooner had the greys opened up than the blue artillery began to pound them. The grey artillery replied with a much lighter bark spewing canister into the advancing blue ranks.

Daniel spotted an older man with a telescope pointing at the grey ranks and sending off a dispatch; his shot swung the man around but Dan saw him being helped to the rear and could not get a follow-up shot in time, so he took out the helper.

He took out another officer and a sergeant before the enemy was close enough to begin their charge. Daniel heard the order to fix bayonets as the greys prepared to meet the attackers and that was when the bombardment began.

Shells screamed through the skies and blasted down on unseasoned fighters whose sole response was to run and hide. Daniel, away from the main ranks, felt safe enough to continue his attrition upon the leadership of the blues but someone among them had noted the direction of his effective fire and had directed the artillery to bracket the ridge on which he was situated.

The first shell struck the bank directly behind Daniel and Billy. A rock in the soil exploded backward decapitating Billy who was catapulted into Daniel knocking him senseless as the shower of soil filled the hollow behind the boulders effectively burying them under several inches of soil.

Daniel was not conscious to see his side overrun by the enemy charge as the raw recruits broke and scattered only to be rounded up and marched off to prison camp.