Battle Flag

Battle Flag
Bernard Cornwell

The third volume in the Starbuck Chronicles. The battle for control of Richmond, the Confederate capital, continues through the hot summer of 1862.Captain Nate Starbuck, yankee fighting for the Southern cause, has to survive and win with his ragged Company in the bitter struggle not only against the formidable Northern army but equally in opposition to his own superiors who would like nothing better than to see Nate Starbuck dead and dishonoured.Starbuck’s courage is tested to the limit in his desperate manoeuvres to retrieve his own and the Legion’s honour in this the thrid narrative of Bernard Cornwell’s sweeping epic of the American Civil War.

Bernard Cornwell

BATTLE FLAG

THE NATHANIEL STARBUCK CHRONICLES

BOOK THREE

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The right of Bernard Cornwell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

BATTLE FLAG. Copyright © 2006 by Bernard Cornwell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 9780007339495

06 07 08 09 10

Version: 2017-05-08

Praise for Bernard Cornwell’s THE NATHANIEL STARBUCK CHRONICLES

“The most entertaining military historical novels…. Always based on fact, always interesting…always entertaining.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] wonderful series…believable, three-dimensional characters…. A rollicking treat for Cornwell’s many fans.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Highly successful.”

—The Times (London)

“Fast-paced and exciting…. Cornwell—and Starbuck—don’t disappoint.”

—Birmingham News

“A top-class read by a master of historical drama. Nate Starbuck is on the march, and on his way to fame.”

—Irish Press

Battle Flag is for my father, with love

CONTENTS

COVER PAGE (#uf5151e1e-a4a4-5d7c-b4b4-7d5cf63de607)

TITLE PAGE (#u22ad9930-6c91-51e5-a5e8-e016c2593b95)

COPYRIGHT

PRAISE

DEDICATION (#u92d524f4-1650-57c1-bd1f-193ebd8408d4)

MAP

PART ONE

CAPTAIN NATHANIEL STARBUCK FIRST SAW HIS NEW (#u0d3ed58f-dfee-5446-aef2-bc97fbad5d80)

THE YANKEE CAVALRY PATROL REACHED GENERAL (#u650c8d97-ffcf-5b08-97f0-d20036894878)

IT’S GOD’S WILL, BANKS! GOD’S WILL!” THE REVEREND (#u57a52692-33af-54a3-86ce-6a7f4b3a0887)

SATURDAY MORNING, THE DAY AFTER BATTLE, AGAIN (#u54cabbd8-ea13-5c26-8704-b56211c9e4a8)

PART TWO

JACKSON, LIKE A SNAKE THAT HAD STRUCK, HURT, BUT (#litres_trial_promo)

THERE WERE TIMES WHEN GENERAL WASHINGTON (#litres_trial_promo)

THE YANKEES’ SPRING OFFENSIVE MIGHT HAVE FAILED, (#litres_trial_promo)

GENERAL STUART’S AIDE REACHED LEE’S HEADQUARTERS (#litres_trial_promo)

THEY MARCHED LIKE THEY HAD NEVER MARCHED IN (#litres_trial_promo)

THE LEGION MARCHED INTO BRISTOE JUST AS THE TRAIN (#litres_trial_promo)

ALL DAY THE YANKEES TRIED TO MAKE SENSE OF (#litres_trial_promo)

AT MANASSAS, ON FRIDAY AUGUST 29, 1862, THE (#litres_trial_promo)

THE LAST NORTHERN ATTACK OF THE DAY WAS BY FAR

THE FIRST ATTACK OF THE SATURDAY MORNING WAS AN

HISTORICAL NOTE