"Your point, Paul?" the marshal said crisply.

"He knows your methods, sir. For that matter, so does Lieutenant
General McCord. He's fought you enough."

There was silence in the staff headquarters, broken suddenly by
Cogswell's curt chuckle. "Paul, I'm going to recommend to the Category
Military Department, your promotion to full colonel on the strength of
that. You were the first to see what I have been getting to.
Gentlemen, do you realize what General McCord and his staff are doing
this very moment? I would wager my reputation that they are poring
over a campaign chart of the battle of Chancellorsville."

The craggy veteran bent back over the map again, his voice dropped all
humor and he stabbed with his baton. "Here, here, and here. They
expect us to duplicate the movements of Lee. Very good, we shall. But
the advances of Lee and Jackson, we will make feints. And the feints
made by Lee and Jackson will be our attacks in force. Gentlemen, we
are going to literally reverse the battle of Chancellorsville. Major
Mauser!"

Joe Mauser had been in the background as befitted his junior rank. Now
he stepped to the table's edge. "Yes, sir."

The marshal indicated a defile. "Were we actually duplicating the
Civil War battle, this would have been the right flank of Sedgwick's
two army corps. We're not dealing in army corps these days but only
regiments, however, the position is relatively as important. Jack
Altshuler's cavalry is largely concentrated here. When the action is
joined, he can move in one of three ways. Through this defile, is
least likely. However, if his heavy cavalry _does_ work its way
through here, I must know immediately. This is crucial, Joe. Any
questions?"

"No, sir."

The marshal turned his attention to his chief of artillery. "Jed, when
we need your guns, we're going to need them badly, but I doubt if that
time will develop until the second or third day of the fracas. Going
to want as clever a job of camouflage done as possible."

The other scowled. "Camouflage, sir?"

"Confound it, yes. French term, I believe. Going to want your guns so
hidden that those two gliders of McCord's will fail to spot them." The
marshal grimaced in the direction of Joe Mauser, who, having his
instructions, had fallen back from the table again. "When you
reintroduced aerial observation to the fracas, major, you set off a
whole train of related factors. Camouflage is going to be in every
field officer's lexicon f