The Killer Angels

Chamberlain and Kilrain returned to the 20th Maine at the summit of Little Round Tops looking as weary and distressed as the soil they trod. The little mounds seemed rough and sore from the wind and the debris from the battle. Almost as though they had been ravished and abused by a force of nature.
“Did you get to see General Meade,” asked Tom Chamberlain “Did you tell him about your feeling about our position here sir? How vulnerable we are to a thrust in a very sensitive place.”
“Nay bucko,” spat Kilrain as he worked a chaw of tobacco “Himself was not receiving visitors this morn, I think he must have been reading the newspapers and smelling the flowers. It’s what the rich do make no doubt at’all sir, no doubt at’all.”
“Now Buster we don’t know that,” Colonel Chamberlain wearily replied. “I am sure he is planning out the campaign that we lead to conquest and victory.”
“Now Colonel Darling it’s a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight, we will be the last to know to be sure. We will be finding out right about when the creatures will be trying to stick us with their bayonets.”
“Well then we will just have to be ready Buster, we will just have to be ready.”

The Killer Angels.

Chamberlain and Kilrain approached the headquarters on foot. His dirty and worn uniform was mud spattered and bedraggled. He looked like he had been chasing a black dog in the rain.

A crispy uniformed Lieutenant was standing on the porch holding two ugly dogs on a leash. He looked the weary Colonel up and down and shook his head.

“Can I help you Colonel” he said with his lip curling in a faint moue of disdain.
“I need to see General Meade” Chamberlain said.
“I am afraid the General is indisposed. He is not available right now. In fact no one has heard from him for days. Can I inform him of something?”
“Yes. I just came from the Little Round Tops. I think the enemy is going to make a move on them. They are going to charge right up the middle and try to penetrate our lines.”
The Lieutenant gave a little snort of disdain. “I doubt very much that there will be any penetration sir. Of that you may be sure.”
“Come along Colonel Darling,” whispered Kilrain as he tugged on the Colonels rain soaked tunic “nothing good can come of this. They will never heed the likes of us.”