Gen. George Sykes, new commander of the Fifth Corps, who had taken over the corps after Meade's elevation, surveyed the map spread out on the table before him. Raising his field glasses, he again tried to examine the ground ahead that was cloaked in morning mist

He looked over at Warren and shook his head. "I can't see a damn thing."

General Crawford, the divisional commander who had led the probing assault at dawn, nodded his head in agreement

"We came up out of the low ground just ahead and got hit on front and flanks. They're out there, sir. A division at the very least."

Sykes looked back down at the map. He was an old professional, a graduate of the class of 1842 from, the Point a veteran of Mexico, and most recently in command of the division of regular army troops that was part of Fifth Corps. On the road behind him that same division was now filing in from Gettysburg after a hard, six-hour march through the night

He studied the map sketched out by Warren, and then fixed his gaze on a cavalry captain, one of the survivors of Buford's command who had fallen back into the lines of Fifth Corps after yesterday's bitter defeat at the bridge.

"The ground around that bridge," Sykes asked, and as he spoke he pointed to its position on the map. "Defendable, if we seize it?"

"Yes, sir. If we had been fresh, backed by artillery, and with sufficient ammunition, we could have held it all day."

Sykes looked back at Warren. "What do you think?"

"We can't do both," Warren replied, shaking his head.

"I agree," Sykes said. "Our orders are to take back Taneytown. But that was given last night, and Meade is now at least twelve miles away. If I thought the bridge was more practical, I'd go for it"

The cavalry captain stirred, clearing his throat nervously. Sykes looked up at him. "Go on, Captain."

"Sir, the ground around Taneytown, it's wide open, almost a flat plateau. In fact the town is down in a bit of a valley."

"Meaning it would be hard to defend except in a stand-up fight"

"Sir, once you take it, then what? Yesterday that road was packed with Rebs clear back beyond Emmitsburg. It most likely still is. Take the bridge, and you plug 'em up that way."

"In other words, go for the bridge rather than the town," Sykes replied.

"I'm just a captain, sir," the cavalryman said cautiously.

Sykes smiled. "Appreciate the comment captain. The question is, what is our mission here?"

'Take Taneytown."

"No, it's to cut Lee's column off from Westminster or at the very least delay it"

He looked up and pointed to the distant cloud of smoke that was visible above the early morning haze.

"It's obvious the head of their column has seized Westminster," Sykes continued. "The fires are most likely our supplies burning, gentlemen. We all know Meade. He commanded this corps before I did. He's going to focus everything he has on taking that town back."

As he spoke he traced a line on the map from Gettysburg to Littlestown and from there on to Union Mills. His finger paused over Union Mills.

"That's the ground you surveyed, isn't it, Warren."

"Yes, sir."

"From what you've told me, it's an ideal position to cover Westminster, but it's ground that starts east of Taneytown and then arches northeast to Union Mills."

Warren nodded.

"That's why we move on Taneytown rather than the bridge. We are now Meade's flank and not an independent command," Sykes announced.

He was silent for a moment, looking back down at the map again as if meditating. All around him were quiet, the only sound the steady tramp of the column marching along the road beside them, and from ahead the final sputtering of fire as the last of Crawford's men fell back across the creek after their dawn repulse.

"His whole army might already have passed," Sykes said, "but I doubt that Lee's goal is Westminster. If we swing to the southwest and cut the bridge, we'll be advancing at a right angle to where we should be going, which is straight at Taneytown. If I were Lee, I'd let me do it The troops beyond the bridge, if there are any, engage and hold us while the rest of his army continues eastward. We'll cut off only part of the tail. I want to cut him right down the middle, and that means Taneytown. That's what will really help Meade in this situation.

"If we hit Taneytown, he's going to have to make a fight of it. The report is that Hood is in front of us. We hit him hard enough, whatever is in that town will have to turn to fight us. And yes, whatever is on the far side of the bridge will hit us as well. We might tie up three, perhaps four divisions of theirs in the process."

"A tall order," Warren whispered.

Sykes looked around at the division and brigade commanders who had come in to receive their orders and were standing silent some of them obviously nervous with the way the conversation was going.

"Gentlemen, this campaign might very well decide the fate of the Union," and as he spoke he pointed toward the smoke over Westminster, which was beginning to expand and spread out

"Lee has Westminster. The Army of the Potomac has been flanked, and we are cut off from our line of communication and supplies. Meade will be forced to attack, maybe as early as this afternoon, most definitely by morning tomorrow."

No one spoke.

"I want a concentrated attack on Taneytown, straight into the town. That will draw the rear of Lee's army back to us. It has to. Two, maybe three of his divisions will be tied up by us. It will tie them up for most of the day, and we might even bleed some of them out. It could very well delay Lee and give General Meade his chance."

He hesitated for a moment. "The fate of the Union rests here now. I am prepared to risk losing this corps if by doing so we give Meade a chance and thus save the Union."

The men around him nodded gravely.

"There'll be no glory in this, gentlemen. It will be a bloody stand-up fight. Crawford will be on the left, Ayres with my old division of regulars, you're in the center, and Barnes on the right Get your staffs moving to lay out the deployment and try to keep it concealed as much as possible from the Rebs."

He pulled out his pocket watch and snapped it open. 'It's a little after seven. It will take at least two hours more for the rest of the corps and our artillery to come up. An hour beyond that to deploy, so we go in no later than ten. The massed batteries will fire two salvos; that will be the signal to begin.

"Advance on a two-brigade front one brigade in reserve for each division, and aim straight for the town. Once in, fully expect to be overlapped on the flanks as Lee pushes in what he has. That's what your reserve brigades are for. Once we get into Taneytown, we dig in and hold on, and make 'em pay for it"

A couple of men grinned.

"If anyone can do it, we can," Romeyn Ayres, who was in command now of Sykes's old division of regulars, announced proudly.

"Get back to your commands."

The men saluted and started to mount up, leaving Sykes and Warren alone for the moment

"You don't like it do you?" Sykes asked.

"It's that bridge to the west Suppose they still have another division over there, maybe even two. Your right will be wide open, and they'll turn your line."

"Send a brigade down there and they'll get flanked same as Buford. And I can't afford a division. I want my command concentrated for this attack. I don't have enough to do two things at once. It's a risk we have to take for the Union."

"So your plan is to just draw them in on you and slug it out"

"Something like that"