//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eight 
// Story: North and South 
// by Tempest Wind 
//------------------------------//




July 7th, 1861







=#===#=


Major General Charm shook her head, as she watched through her field glasses at the Rebels crossing the riverline near Staunton again. The thunderstorm had let up for long enough to allow the ground to solidify, and so Lightning Charm rightly assumed the Confederates were likely to try something again. 

Doubly so, Charm assumed, now that Tempest’s Corps had completely marched down to Virginia Military Institute and was likely too far away from her own corps to provide support. A pity, but from her own estimation, Charm was looking at a force roughly the same size as her own. For once, her Corps might even outnumber the Rebels - which would be only the second time an Equestrian Army Corps had enjoyed such a boon since the damnable war had begun.

“Alright, we roughly outnumber the enemy force to the tune of around seven-fifty and a few extra cannon in comparison.” Charm began, as her officers stood around her command tent’s map table. They’d drawn up around Applemattox Court House for the day, with the rebels expected to arrive sometime around eleven in the morning - roughly five hours away. “They’re going to be arriving in two split forces - their Army of the Potomac, and their Army of the Fillisee. The army of the Fillisee is going to be two hours behind according to Colonel Spring Rain’s cavalry scouts.” Charm paused, as Colonels Starry Night and Night Light, both of whom had served alongside her in the Badlands War, and whom she could rely on as excellent Brigade Commanders in battle. 

Officers that  she would be relying on soon as her Brigade Commanders in such a battle, she reminded herself idly. “We have the better troops, we have the numbers, and we have the good ground. So we will deploy aggressively and forward, taking the fight to the rebels before they can group up and take the fight to us. Brigadier General Clear Water?”

“Yes, General Charm, ma’am?”

“Take Starry and Night Light’s Brigades, and push down to West Inge Farmhouse here, south of the Plain Run Branch Creek. Spring Rain, take your cavalry with them, and provide support. I want you to use the Farm as a hard point as the rebels waltz up the road, and push them back as is practical. On the right, near Prince Blueblood Courthouse Road to the East, I want Sunset Shimmer and Cloud Skipper’s two brigades to hold Le Grande hill against the Filliseean army coming up the road. They’ll have a larger force than you, but you’re better equipped and likely to be able to force them back whilst you have ammunition. Artillery will deploy around the Trent and Sears farms, in support of both wings of the line. Any questions?”

“No? Then you are dismissed. Prepare your troops.”


=//[]\\=


Colonel Starry Night lit herself a cigarillo as she surveyed her troops, who had taken up defensive lines dug into the split rail fence around West Inge Farmhouse. Night Light’s Brigade sat further back down the road itself and by the intersection, where his troops could draw the enemy brigades into Starry’s line of fire once they began marching up the dirt road towards the Court House. 

The rebels were undoubtedly marching up the road towards them with their smaller force - hence the smaller force she’d been nudged into with Night Light to counter them, whilst Sunset Shimmer and Cloud Skipper took the larger force east to check the main Confederate advance. 

“Here they come, Colonel, ma’arm.” One of her Sergeants muttered, readying his Sharps Rifle between his hooves as the Confederates finally came into view marching gamely up the road.

“Hold fast, everypony.” Starry cautioned, gesturing for the brigade to stay low with her officer’s saber. “Remember, we want them to pass us in favor of Night Light’s folks. Hooves off the triggers, and keep quiet.”

The rebels, thankfully, did end up bypassing Starry’s line - there really wasn’t too much worry of them not doing so; Starry’s troops were quiet, behind a thick fence, and set fairly far back from the road the Confederates were using. Thus, they easily fell into the trap the two brigades had laid for them. 

Night Light’s own Sharps rifles began to crack out with fire as the Confederates hooped and hollered, pushing themselves into a frenzy as return musket fire echoed towards Light’s brigade. With a nod, Starry flashed her officer’s saber, and addressed her ponies: “Up guns, and at'em!”

With a hearty cheer, her troops stood up and clambered over the split-rail fence they’d been covering behind, unfurling their battle flag and letting it fly freely as they double-quicked up the road and to the side of the advancing rebels. Readying a volley from their quick-firing Sharps rifles, Starry’s troops shot out an accurate and withering volley, before slapping open breeches and cartridge boxes to keep up the bloody fire. Off to Starry and Night Light’s right, Spring Rain’s cavalry was holding off another brigade all on their own, and though outnumbered about two-to-one, were gamely giving their foe as good as they got.

The rebels quickly broke, suffering heavily from the repeated and witheringly accurate fire put out by Starry and Night Light’s troops, and the two brigades allowed them to withdraw - instead rushing over to help Spring Rain’s cavalry see off the other rebel brigade.


=//[]\\=



Over on the right, Sunset Shimmer’s own large Brigade had drawn up atop the Le Grande hill with Skipper’s infantry in support to her north and a bit further down the hill. The rebels were marching straight up the Courthouse road towards them, and Sunset’s Whinnyworth armed troops were well prepared to receive the rebels if they were of the incorrect assumption that they could take Le Grande Hill and overturn the Equestrian left. Major General Charm herself stood somewhere behind Colonel Shimmer with the rest of her staff, watching cautiously from behind the crest of the hill as the rebels strayed into the longer range of her whinnyworths.

“Sharpshooters, fire at your leisure.” Sunset began, deploying her skirmishers forwards. “Infantry, hold for four hundred yards, bottom of the hill.” The unicorn mare continued, watching the proceeding Confederates as her skirmish line and Skipper’s infantry began to fire on the rebels in concert with each other.

The Confederates continued forwards under enemy fire however, and once they hit the base of the hill, Sunset’s main line of infantry began to put down withering volley after withering volley at the confederates. Whilst her troops’ rifles were slower to load and shoot than other rifles or muskets, their accuracy and range more than made up for the increased loading time as rebel after rebel fell dead or injured.

Night fell a touch early, around seven thirty or so, and the rebels withdrew along with it, not interested in continuing the fighting.

And that suited Sunset just fine.