How the West Was Won Page #6

Might not give you no shirts, though.

Take that one off, I'll wash it for you.

I got the others washed,

they aren't ironed yet.

Mother, I...

Why'd you call me that?

It's always been "Ma" before.

I don't know.

All of a sudden...

..."Ma" didn't seem enough somehow.

Hey, cowpoke!

Go on back, dog!

Go on!

What could I do, Pa?

He's Linus, boy.

Always was more Linus, blood.

I guess that's why I love him so much.

But you've gotta help me pray, Pa.

Help me pray.

Ohio.

Battery B, Ohio!

- Let's go!

On the double, come on!

Anybody here from the 12th Michigan?

Thirty-sixth Indiana.

Evening of April 6th, 1862.

The guns that had roared all day

fell silent...

... around a little church

called the Shiloh Meeting House.

Many a man had met his God

that Sunday...

... but not in church.

You wasted your time, men. He's dead.

- But, doc, this here is Captain Rawlings.

- Captain Linus Rawlings.

- Take him out.

- Keep moving, men.

- Why can't you look where you're going?

- I'm sorry, soldier.

Watch it.

Saw. Brandy.

Chloroform.

Get it all down. Come on, all of it.

Come on, we're just in the way here.

It had been the bloodiest day

of the war on the Western front.

In the morning, it had looked like

a Confederate victory, but by nightfall...

... no man cared to use

the words "win" or "lose."

After Shiloh...

... the South never smiled.

- You tasted that water yet?

- No.

Well, try it.

- Tastes funny, huh?

- Yeah.

I seen it before sundown. It was pink.

Pinker than sassafras tea.

You mean...?

It don't seem fitting a man should have

to drink water like that.

Don't seem fitting a man should have

to do any of the things we've done today.

Did you kill anybody?

I don't think so.

I got knocked dizzy right off.

And when I come to, found my rifle,

it was busted.

And then some more soldiers come along

and tried to stick me in the arm.

All the rest is mixed up after that.

Well, I ain't killed nobody, neither.

And I don't want to.

- Hey, where you from?

- Ohio.

This fool war started in the East.

What's us Westerners doing in it?

I don't rightly know anymore.

It ain't quite what I expected.

There ain't much glory looking at a man

with his guts hanging out.

- Where are you from?

- Texas.

Say...

You ain't a Reb, are you?

Well, I was this morning.

Tonight, I ain't so sure.

Seems like I ought to be shooting you.

Well, you got anything to shoot with?

No.

All I got's this bayonet.

I got a pistol.

I took it off a dead officer.

Hey, why don't we

skedaddle out of here?

- You mean desert?

- I mean, why don't...?

Just leave this here war

to the folks who'd want it.

They say there ain't no war

out in California.

Get that battery over here.

Stragglers, join your regiment.

Stragglers. Hey, you!

I'm planning to move Rousseau's brigade

into this area.

Hidden battery, placed well before dawn.

Do you approve?

I'll approve any dispositions

you wanna make.

If you hadn't held the flank today,

we'd have been whipped for fair.

Sherman, let's sit down a minute.

There's something I wanna say to you.

Lantern.

You may find yourself in command here.

Why?

I've seen some of the dispatches the

newspaper correspondents have filed today.

They're saying

I was taken by surprise this morning.

You weren't taken by surprise.

I was.

No matter.

They're saying...

...I was drunk again last night.

Were you?

No.

But you can't fight front and rear.

Win or lose, tomorrow...

...I intend to resign.

Because of the newspapers?

Because of a general

lack of confidence in me.

Oh, don't you think

I've ever felt like that?

A month ago they were saying

I was crazy. Insane.

Now they're calling me a hero.

A hero or crazy, I'm the same man.

It doesn't matter what the people think.

It's what you think, Grant.

You mean that's Grant?

I reckon.

General Grant.

You know this war's gonna be won

in the West, and how to win it.

Everything you've done proves it.

And I say that a man has the right

to resign only if he's wrong.

Not if he's right.

I guess I never thought of it that way.

I'll think it over.

What is there to think about?

The Army's better off with you

than without you. That's the test.

All right.

Thanks.

There's a lot to do

before morning, Sherman.

What are you doing?

Why did you make me do that?

Fire.

Hey, Zeb!

Didn't you get my letter?

I wrote more than four months ago.

She never was...

...quite the same

after she got the news about Pa.

I don't think she minded going,

Zeb, except...

...she wanted to see you again.

Of course Pa ain't really there.

I put up a stone anyway.

Well...

...better be on my way.

Way? Where?

I need you, Zeb.

Only one thing brought me back.

She's...

Well, this farm is half yours.

I was thinking we'd finally clear away that

patch of woods down by the river and...

You're twice the farmer I am.

You don't need me.

Farm's all yours. It's only fair.

Sure don't feel right about this.

What are you gonna do?

I haven't mustered out yet.

I can still transfer to the regulars.

Cavalry, maybe. Go west.

Have to fight Indians?

You sure are hard to make out, Zeb.

Now, what do you wanna do that for?

Do you like fighting?

You remember the story Pa used to tell us

about fighting that grizzly bear?

Yeah.

And I asked him, I said,

"Well, why'd you get in such a fix?

Do you like fighting grizzlies?"

He said:

"Well, uh, not especially. Uh...

I just wanted to go somewhere

and the bear was there first."

Well, I...

I guess I just wanna go somewhere too.

- So long.

- So long, Zeb.

Even while North and South

were being torn apart...

... East and West had been

drawn together by the Pony Express...

... the most daring mail route in history.

Eighty riders were in the saddle

at all times, night and day, in all weather.

Half of them riding east,

half riding west...

... between Missouri and Sacramento...

... carrying mail across country

in days instead of months.

Unarmed, they rode to save weight.

Five dollars a letter, the mail cost,

and on thin paper too.

It was courage, skill and speed...

... against hostile Indians, bandits,

hell and occasional high water.

Even as they rode,

men were already building...

... a faster message carrier across

the country:
The Overland Telegraph.

And the Indians found

a new amusement...

... listening to the level tune

of the singing wires.

But far less amusing to the Indians...

... was the coming of the steel roadway

of the iron horse.

The surveyors, route lay through immense

natural barriers, the Rocky Mountains...

... and the equally discouraging

High Sierras.

But range upon range could never stop

the titanic contest...

... between two corporate giants

racing to put down...

... the greatest mileage of track

before they met.

The Central Pacific eastward

from Sacramento through the Sierras.

And the Union Pacific,

forging westward across the plains...

... with the Rockies still to come.

The prize in the race was free land,

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