The Civil War: A Soldier's Story

Chapter 5: The Trip

I packed up my bags, and headed off on a new adventure.It took a week to get to Virginia, and it was the longest week of my life. It was rainy most of the time, causing mud to form on the roads. In North Carolina,  one of the horses got stuck in deep mud, and when we tried to free it, it just kept sinking, and finally it sunk in so deep we couldn't save it. The whole group of recommissioned soldiers were very groggy and unhappy, We only had hard tack to eat, and everyone was kind of angry bevause the military base didn't give us enough good food.

     After finally making it into parts of Virginia, the sun came out again. We rode into the Blue Ridge Mountains, walking up steep hills and looking at the mountains and the valleys.below as we went. That night, we set up camp in the woods, putting up our green army tents. I had to go to the bathroom, so I went out into the woods. Suddenly, I stopped, after hearing a small growling sound. Two small bear cubs came running towards me and checking me out sniffing my legs and feet.  How cute, I thought. Oh no! How could I have been so stupid! A larger, more menacing growl came from my left. A huge black bear came running towards me, and I jumped out of the way just in time, as the bear barreled into the center of camp. I heard shoits, and came running towards them. I saw three men lying on the ground, and it took me 1 minute to get my hidden pistol out of my pegleg. The bear stood up on its hind legs, and roared. I took aim, and fired. The bear picked up it's claw to swipe, but then, fell on top of me. The men got the bear off of me , and we got to helping  the wounded.

  After we buried the men the next day, we were off again on our journey. I had a feeling that the bear attack would be the least traumatizing thing I would see in my lifetime. As we rode off on our horses, I looked back at the wooden crosses on the ground, and said a silent prayer, and moved on.