“Probably not,” Scott agreed. “I can’t see how anyone who has watched the men and women he commands die in battle not feel like shit after being stopped when victory was within their grasp.” He checked himself before he added, “It’s insane.” Such thoughts were somehow unseemly for an officer of his rank and position. Besides, Scott didn’t need to say that anyway. He knew his chief of staff well enough to appreciate that Felden probably felt the same.

The two senior officers lapsed into a painful silence. During that time they both sipped their coffee and allowed their minds to wander freely. There wasn’t much they needed to do at the moment. Whereas the division’s activities in the predawn darkness had been directed by the officers commanding the brigades, battalions, and companies of the 4th AD, dawn and the cessation of battle saw unit executive officers and the commanders of service support units move forward and take over. They tended to the wounded and began the grim task of recovering the dead. In units at all levels first lieutenants, captains, and majors oversaw the process of rearming and refueling in preparation for the division’s next mission. Finally, Scott mumbled as he strained to look beyond the western horizon, “I’ve failed.”

Expecting this sort of thing, Felden turned to face Scott. “You did everything expected of you. Without exception the soldiers of this division performed magnificently. The plan was executed with precision, your commanders seized every objective assigned to them, and we did what was asked of us. No one could have done any more than you did.”

Struggling to hold back, Scott turned and looked at his chief of staff dumbfounded. He didn’t understand, Dixon thought. How could he. He didn’t know that Nathan was still out there. Felden couldn’t appreciate how crushing the order to stop had been to him coming, as it did, just when he had been given an open road and a chance to go all the way.

Even now Scott found himself battling the rage he felt. How easy, Scott told himself, it would be to issue orders for a part of his division to sally forth and continue their advance on Boise. He was the commanding general of the division. While there would be open discord among his staff and commanders, Scott was confident that if he ordered them to do so they would execute such an order.