The Civil War: A Soldier's Story

Chapter 8-It begins

     We were sent off from the base, supposedly to board a train to ride to our destination. There were hundreds, even thousands of men getting on the trains. I was stuck in the officers'  train car, nicer than the normal car, but still pretty nasty. I could smell the horse train car in front of us, making me gag. I was glad to get out of that train car, once we arrived at our destination. 

     We camped in a long stretch of woods in a valley, next to what seemed to be a farm field, with a farmhouse up on a hill in  the middle of  the field. I wouldn't call it exactly a comfy place. We slept under homemade blanket tents, and without any beds to sleep on, lying on bare dirt. Ever since I was a child, I have had a fear of bugs. Once, I saw a small bug inside a cotton plant back at home during the time our crops failed one year. Anyways, I couldn't show the men that me, an officer, was afraid of bugs, so I shut up and went to sleep without a word that night.

     The next morning, I woke up to the sound of shuffling feet, and I got up and asked why men were up this early. Apparently, the main commanding officer had put on a search party to scout the surrounding area. Later, the scouting party set off just as the sun rose just over the horizon. I went off onto my business, ordering people around, and making coffee. 

     Suddenly, I heard gunshots out in the field, and all the soldiers looked in that direction. It was the scouts, yelling and shouting in our direction. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but we looked farther out, and there was a thin blue line coming towards us. We could finally understand hat they were saying. "YANKEES!"

     Then, a train whistle sounded, and we heard that grunt and groan of metal, and saw the black line of the train move across the field. I mounted my horse, and heard the train whistle one more time, echoing through the valley. Bullets began whizzing by my head, and so the battle had begun.  

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