Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History by Peter G. Tsouras

had slipped through the Union pickets and across the Rappahannock River to Fredericksburg and on to Richmond, where he was received at the highest levels and given handsome letters of introduction to Lee. The visit developed into an unabashed case of outright hero worship. For the rest of his life, he would hold Lee as the absolute paragon and say in his later years, “I have met two men whom I prized above all the world I have ever known, and the greater of these two was General Lee.” The other was the British general Charles “Chinese” Gordon, who would perish gloriously at Khartoum a generation later. 16
    Wolseley’s visit to Lee might have gone unnoticed save for the article he wrote for
Blackwood’s Magazine
that received much notice notonly in Britain but also in the States. It had given astute professional insight into the Army of Northern Virginia. His opinion was that he never saw an army composed of men who “looked more like work” than this one. 17 The contrast with their ragged condition could not have been starker in the eyes of an officer from an army of sartorial splendor. In a review held of Hood’s Texas Division for his benefit, Wolseley was shocked to see so many trousers worn out at the bottom as the ranks passed. Noticing his surprise, Lee remarked, “Never mind the raggedness, Colonel. The enemy never sees the back of my Texas Brigade.” Sharpe could appreciate that because he had helped the Army of the Potomac prove Lee wrong at Gettysburg.
    Wolseley’s escapade might have created less controversy had he not offered good reasons for a British alliance in order to safeguard Her Majesty’s possessions in North America. His statement that a defeated North could not attack Canada if threatened by Britain’s Confederate ally won him no thanks in the Union.
    With all this in mind, Sharpe was most interested in what Wolseley was doing back in the United States. Wolseley seemed most interested in Sharpe’s experience at Gettysburg and his opinion of the battle. It was a safe subject to draw him out on, and Sharpe steered the discussion to the conduct of the battle in general. Wolseley’s disappointment in the outcome of the battle was clear. He could not believe Lee had blundered and kept quizzing Sharpe to discover some explanation that would exculpate his hero. Nonetheless, Sharpe had to admit that his questions were penetrating and his comments insightful. This was a man who knew the business of soldiering.
    Wolseley snorted in contempt when Sharpe described the moving scene of the Irish Brigade kneeling to receive the benediction of Father William Corby, who blessed their heroic charge. He evidently assumed that Sharpe’s name put his ancestors on the Anglo-Saxon side of the Irish Sea. Wolseley asked, “Are you by chance related to Col. Richard Sharpe of the 95th Rifles?”
    Sharpe saw no reason to tell him that it was the Anglicized form of the German Sherfe. “Not that I know of. My people have been in this country for almost two hundred years. I’m afraid I am not familiar with that officer.”
    Woolsey was clearly disappointed. “Why, Richard Sharpe was one of Wellington’s favorite officers, risen from the ranks for gallantry, and a very prolific killer of Frenchmen, I might add.” It was evident that thelatter quality was high on Wolseley’s list of martial virtues. 18 But the subject of the Sharpe family name had only diverted him from this Gaelic distaste. “And as for the Irish, my dear Colonel, they are an ugly race with noses so cut away that you can see the place where their brains should be.” 19
    Sharpe had to control himself as he thought of all the Irish boys in his regiment from Kingston who had fallen on that field as well as the daring and courage of his scouts, the Carney brothers, and young Martin Hogan just three years off the boat. Instead, he smiled blandly, “Well, sir, they don’t always present themselves to best effect. But I would think that a