Chapter XXII
The Battle of Elma
General Dru had many spies in the enemies’ camp, and some of these succeeded in crossing the lines each night in order to give him what information they had been able to gather.
Some of these spies passed through the lines as late as eleven o’clock the night before the battle, and from them he learned that a general attack was to be made upon him the next day at six o’clock in the morning.
As far as he could gather, and from his own knowledge of the situation, it was General Newton’s purpose to break his center. The reason Newton had this in mind was that he thought Dru’s line was far flung, and he believed that if he could drive through the center, he could then throw each wing into confusion and bring about a crushing defeat.
As a matter of fact, Dru’s line was not far flung, but he had a few troops strung out for many miles in order to deceive Newton, because he wanted him to try and break his center.
Up to this time, he had taken no one into his confidence, but at midnight, he called his division commanders to his headquarters and told them his plan of battle.
They were instructed not to impart any information to the commanders of brigades until two o’clock. The men were then to be aroused and given a hasty breakfast, after which they were to be ready to march by three o’clock.
Recent arrivals had augmented his army to approximately five hundred thousand men. General Newton had, as far as he could learn, approximately six hundred thousand, so there were more than a million of men facing one another.