Free Spake As a Dragon by Larry Edward Hunt Page B

engage the Union forces in hand-to-hand
combat. Up and down the long line of Yankee soldiers, each
Company’s bugler could be heard above the roar of battle, blowing
‘ Infantry Commence Firing .’ The men of both armies fight
with bayonets, knives, and rifle butts some even throw stones. It
is a fight for survival. Swords sever arms, hatchets split open
skulls, and the ground is red as if it had rained blood. If the
South had not retreated that horrendous day, not a man on either
side would have gone unscathed.
     
    SPAKE AS A
DRAGON
     
    General George Meade is not the only
commander on the field this day with Biblical scriptures on his
mind. General Robert E. Lee stands on the edge of the battlefield
with his own spyglass to his eye. As he watches the destruction of
his army, he recalls two verses:
     
    ‘ And it came to pass on
the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and
lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the
trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp
trembled. (Exodus 19:12)
     
    ‘ ...I beheld another beast
coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and
he SPAKE AS A DRAGON.’ (Revelation 13:11)
     
    General Lee, a deeply religious man
who reads his Bible daily, has always believed the reference in the
Book of Revelations about the ‘two horns like a lamb’ was a
reference to the United States. The lamb is a meek, tender loving
animal, but when provoked will use his two horns like a battering
ram. Today the Battle of Gettysburg was in its third day, and the
Ram of the Union Army is battering his Army of Northern Virginia to
pieces. General Lee has never seen a dragon, but if one exists its
voice surely would sound exactly like the roar of battle taking
place before his very eyes - a roar he imagined, that ‘SPAKE AS
A DRAGON !’
    After an hour or so of fierce
hand-to-hand fighting, the shattered Southern forces started to
lose ground and began to retreat. Pickett’s Charge is now turning
into a defeat. Not only has Lee’s invincible army been beaten, some
of the men were throwing down their arms and surrendering. Luke,
although only slightly wounded, is among the men captured. As the
men in blue lead him away, he stares intently across the body
littered field toward the Emmitsburg Road and the rail fence,
looking for Matthew. There is so many, so many, dead and wounded he
cannot distinguish merely one body from among the many. He passes a
Union Colonel watching the Confederates as they struggle to return
to the safety of their own lines. Luke reaches out, grabs the
sleeve of the Colonel’s coat and begs for a brief look through his
spyglass, “Please, sir I plead with you! I seek my brother...can I
just look one time. He is wounded.” With a look of disgust, the
Colonel jerks his coat sleeve free, turns from Luke and walks away
as though some vermin had touched his arm.
    The glorious Army of Northern Virginia
began the charge with 12,000 brave and fearless men now hardly
6,000 of them are able to walk, crawl or drag themselves back to
the woods on Seminary Ridge.
    General Lee rides Traveller out onto
the field of blood. Meeting the straggling survivors, he tells
them, "It is my fault, it is all my fault!"
    He waits patiently on General Pickett;
finally, he sees him, his face is blacken from the gunpowder, his
uniform torn his hat missing, blood oozes from the shoulder of his
mount ‘Old Black.’ Lee approaches and addresses him, "General upon
my shoulders rests the blame. Please assembly your Division we must
provide for a counter-attack."
    “ General Lee, I have no Division!”

Chapter
Twelve
     
    PRISONERS OF
WAR
     
    Sergeant Scarburg remained at Doctor
Letterman’s Hospital for a few days. Day by day his condition
improved due in large part from the constant care he received from
Miss Barton or one of her attendants. Miss Barton had found a scrap
of paper in Robert’s pocket. It was his promotion orders