"You've already demonstrated it," Andrew said, looking back at the major.
"So far the boys have built four mills and made a good start on a railroad—
Ferguson told me last night he could have a small locomotive ready in another month. Last night I went over the regimental rolls. Most all the boys in the regiment come from
Maine
, a lot from the factory towns. O'Donald's boys are from the city and quite a few tradesmen in the lot, and Cromwell has a number of men who know steam engines and other things as well.
"Gentlemen, I daresay nearly all the knowledge necessary to build a modern
New England factory town is sitting around this table, or outside enjoying the celebrations. We're going to start from scratch, but by heaven we'll do it, because we know the price of failure if we do not."
The men visibly perked up at the passion in Andrew's voice. "I've drawn up a basic plan of organization," he said, and pulling out a roll of note paper from his tunic he put on his glasses.
"We are going to divide our organization into three areas— labor, industrialization, and military training.
"Kal, as of this moment you and your men will be in charge of organizing your people for work. I'm giving you full responsibility and power for this. The various people I appoint for building projects will come to you. You and your people in turn will marshal the necessary forces. We are talking about tens of thousands of men and women who will have to be organized. I'm giving you the full authority of military law under me. Do you understand that?"
The peasant, taken aback, merely nodded in reply.
"Next
comes
the industrialization. John, I am giving you full authority for that organization. You are to coordinate all projects, give them priority, assign whoever is necessary, and see Kal for the workers."
John leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"I'll be hell to live with for some of you," John said, looking about the table, and the other officers laughed good-naturedly.
"All right, then, John, let's see what has to be done in the following areas.
"The most basic requirement is iron and powder. What would you need for at least ten thousand muskets and a hundred field pieces?"
"One hundred!"
O'Donald said excitedly.
"Colonel dar-Hng, how in the name of the saints do you plan that?"
"They won't be Napoleons," Andrew replied. "I'm thinking of light field pieces, four-pounders at most, that can be moved by a single horse."
"Still, Andrew, that's a lot of metal."
"The artillery will be under your command, O'Donald— let me worry about where it comes from."
"From battery commander to chief of artillery," O'Donald laughed, grinning with delight.
"That's a lot of metal, as he said," John replied.
"What do you need to do it, John? I don't want to hear how much—I want to know what it takes to get the job done," Andrew said looking across the table.
"All right," John said quietly, sitting back and thinking while the room was silent.
"To start, we'll need a foundry, a damn big one, not that little affair back on the mill stream. And that means power, lots of it."
Andrew turned away from John and looked over at
Ferguson, the only enlisted man in the room besides Hans.
"
Ferguson, what about power?"
"I'd like to say steam engines, sir. Now if we could take the engine out of the
Ogunquit
—"
"Like hell you will," Tobias roared.
"We need the boat for transport," Andrew replied, "and Captain Cromwell, if I do want that engine at a later date, I'D take it whether you like it or not."
"Well then, sir,"
Ferguson continued, speaking quickly as if to avoid an argument, "I'd still like to say steam engines.
We've got a small one for our locomotive which is half done, but it'll be a weak one at best. To build bigger and stronger ones we'll need precision tools and equipment. That'll take time."
"But I want the power now," Andrew said.
"Sir, Dr. Weiss, Kal, and I went up to survey that site for the dam above the city. I figure it'll take six months with five thousand working on it to get all the earth moved. But once done, it'd deliver a tremendous head of power, enough to handle all we'd possibly need. From that power we can turn out all that the major wants, with plenty to spare for other projects."
"Kal, I want twenty thousand men to start on that dam within two days," Andrew said, and the peasant looked at him wide-eyed.
"But colonel—"
"Do you want to live past next year?" Andrew replied.
Kal nodded, looking somewhat overwhelmed.
"Then all of your people had better learn quickly that this is not working for some boyar and trying to do as little as possible—this means hard work from morning to night."
"But the ground is frozen."
"Then use picks, get below the frost, and start digging."
Andrew looked back to
Ferguson and nodded for him to continue.
"Sir, I can have the plans and survey done for the dam in three days' time."
"Good, son.
You're now promoted to captain and are hereby assigned all engineering design work. Start with the dam, then with anything that'll create power. You're also in charge of the railroad. I'm authorizing you to form an engineering company. Pick the best men—you can go through the roster book later."
"Thank you, sir," Jim said, beaming with pride.
John looked back at Mina.
"All right, what do you need, if
Ferguson can give you the power?"
"Sir, we'll need a major foundry to cook down the ore. Then bigger forges to turn the runoff into wrought iron for the basic needs
of
metal, and then special furnaces to turn out steel for tools and springs for the gun locks."
"Pick all the men you need, and get started at once. Talk to
Ferguson about the best
sites,
and to Kal about the labor."
"Sir, there'll be a hell of lot going into this," John said.
"Go on, John, I need to know."
"Sir,
it's
one thing to roll out a musket barrel, but cutting a rifle requires a lot more time and precision."
"What do you suggest?"
"Well, sir, I'd suggest that we turn out flintlock smoothbore muskets. It'd eliminate the need for percussion caps, which need fulminate of mercury, and I sure as hell don't know where we'd get the mercury for that. I know muskets will only give us a range of a hundred yards instead of the four hundred a good Springfield rifle can deliver. But we can turn out a hell of a lot more muskets than rifles, especially at the start. Maybe later we'll get up to something like flintlock long rifles."
Andrew had been afraid he would hear this. They already knew from experience that the Tugar bows would carry two hundred yards, maybe more, thus outranging flintlocks like the type his grandfather had carried in the Revolution. Tactics would somehow have to be adjusted, but it was better to have muskets than nothing at all.
"What else would you need?" Andrew asked, deciding to worry about tactics when there was more time.
"Sir, we'll need a constant source of iron ore. We've found only that one site. The quality of the ore is good, but we'll need to expand that operation significantly to supply our needs. I've already learned the Suzdalians have another site, but
it's
way the hell up the river. Next we'll need to cook an awful lot of limestone for flux. Finally, there's fuel, and that's the worst part.
"I can use wood charcoal, though it'll mean thousands of men cutting and cooking the stuff to keep the mills going. We need coal—good hard anthracite would be best. Then we need a retort furnace to cook the stuff into coke, to get rid of the chemicals in coal that would make the metal brittle. Without coal I can't turn out the amount of metal we need."
To Andrew the whole business of metalworking was a mystery. He turned and looked at Kal.
"Have you ever heard of coal?" he asked.
Kal, confused, merely shook his head.
"He means a rock that burns," Emil said. "It's black and shiny and smells when it burns."
"Ah, the gate to the devil," Kal said, and turning to Casmar he talked excitedly with the prelate for several minutes and then turned back to Andrew.
"We call it devil rock.
Half a day's walk beyond the hills where you get the iron rock.
There's a hole where smoke comes out. There are black rocks there. Casmar says it is dangerous, though, for it is the hole into hell."
This would require some long conversations, Andrew thought. The last thing he needed was to turn another prelate against him who might think that they were digging a tunnel into hell.
Andrew looked through the regimental rolls and found what he wanted.
"O'Donald, your roster indicates that Mike Polawski was a coal miner by trade."
"Came out of
Scranton, just before the war.
Only Pole in the battery, but a good Catholic boy nevertheless."
"See him at once. Tell him to get together some men, and Father Casmar will locate a guide to check the site out.
"What else will you need?" Andrew said, looking back at John.
"If we've got the fuel, flux, and ore, along with the power from the dam, we'll start work. I think I can figure out how to cast light artillery pieces and some way to roll gun barrels. It'll take some time, though, to put the pieces together."
"I know you can do it, John," Andrew said, forcing a smile.
"There's another problem, though. The mill will be located above Suzdal, since that's where the power is. Our ore is up on the mill stream and the coal maybe six or seven miles beyond that. Hauling it will be hell."
Andrew looked back at
Ferguson.
"I want a railroad to be laid out from the dam site, down into Suzdal, along the river road, and then up past the ore pit, and if there's coal to that site as well."
"That's a powerful order, sir. Fifteen, more like eighteen miles of track at least, not counting sidings. Sir, if we use wooden track covered with iron strap, I figure that will mean ..." He paused for a moment to do a rough calculation. "We'll need something like three hundred tons, and that's making the rail awful light."
Mina whistled, started to shake his head, and then, seeing Andrew's cold gaze, stopped.
"John, the foundry and mill you've going now?"
"A couple of tons a day at best."
"Put everything you have into turning out metal strapping for the tracks.
"
Ferguson, once you're done with the dam survey,
get your team
working on laying out the route for the track. We've got some boys who've worked on the railroads— you're using them already. Get them moving on track layout. See Kal, draw out as many laborers as you'll need to clear, grade, lay ties and stringers."
"The ground's frozen, sir,"
Ferguson said quietly.
"Build on top of it if need be, we've got the labor to regrade after the thaw."
"I'll see to it immediately, sir,"
Ferguson replied, grinning at the responsibilities given to him. "Sir, there's another idea."
"Go ahead."
"Mitchell—he's a friend of mine over in E Company— well, Mitchell was a telegrapher before the war. I was talking with him the other day. He said if we could get some copper it would be real easy to set a telegraph up. It'd be a help once the trains are rolling, and really help as well for communication once the war gets started."
It was something Andrew hadn't even thought of, and he smiled approvingly.
Andrew looked over at Mina.
"John, what do you think?"
"Sir, we'd need to find some copper and make a wire works. That's asking an awful lot."
"Assign it to that Mitchell boy. Promote him to sergeant, and get one of your people to start checking on a copper supply around here as well."
John looked over at
Ferguson and gave him an ugly stare. Andrew knew that Mina and the former private were already good friends, so he let it pass without comment.
"All right.
Gunpowder—any suggestions?"
"Sir, we can get the saltpeter easy enough,"
Ferguson said. "We'll need to organize teams to dig up every manure pile in the countryside. It's fairly simple then to refine out
the nitrates. I'd suggest we dig up all the latrine pits in the city as well—there'll be tons of the stuff in there."
Andrew looked over at Kal.
"It's rotten work. You'll have to get somebody to do it, though."
Confused, Kal could only look at Andrew in amazement.