But the Colonel was not listening because Faulconer had at last seen his color party emerge from the woods, and he galloped forward to meet them. He was determined that whatever else happened on this awful day, he would not lose the two flags. Even if the Confederacy went down in blazing defeat he would carry those twin colors back to Seven Springs and there hang the flags in his hallway to remind his descendants that their family had fought for Virginia. Ridley followed the Colonel, made silent by the enormity of the defeat.

At first the Colonel did not see Adam, who was now being helped by Sergeant Truslow and Sergeant Major Proctor. The Colonel only saw Thaddeus Bird, who was dragging the Faulconer coat-of-arms in the dirt. “What the hell did you do with my Legion!” Faulconer shouted at his brother-in-law. “What the hell have you done?”

Thaddeus Bird stopped and stared up at the angry Colonel. It seemed to take him a few seconds to recognize Washington Faulconer, but when he did, he just laughed.

“Damn it, Pecker! Damn it!” Faulconer very nearly slashed his riding crop across the schoolmaster’s laughing face.

“Adam’s wounded.” Bird had abruptly ceased laughing and now spoke with an earnest intensity. “But he’ll be all right. He fought well. They all fought well, or almost all. We have to teach them to aim low, though, and there are a host of other lessons we have to learn. But we didn’t do badly for a first fight.”

“Badly! You threw the Legion away! Goddamn you! You threw it away!” The Colonel spurred Saratoga on to where Truslow and Proctor were helping Adam. “Adam!” the Colonel shouted, and was astonished to see his son smiling almost happily.

“Be careful of the woods, Faulconer!” Sergeant Truslow growled. “They’re full of goddamned Yankees.”

The Colonel had intended to snap at Adam, to reprimand him for letting Bird disobey orders, but his son’s bloody leg checked his anger. Then he looked up to see a last figure in gray uniform stagger out of the trees. It was Starbuck, and the sight of him made Washington Faulconer’s anger surge up so intensely that he shuddered uncontrollably. “I’ll come back for you, Adam,” he said, then spurred Saratoga on toward Starbuck.