Gettysburg

Pony’s From the Civil War

By Grayfire

It was at the battle of Gettysburg shots were being fired from all sides screams and roaring cannon fire could be heard for miles but among this we see Private Jackson Hensley of the Confederate States of America running for cover among all this chaos. He had just turned 18 when he joined the army and just finished training and he was already in for the fight of his life. Jackson thinks “SHIT SHIT SHIT WHERE IS THE REST OF MY COMPANY”. He was running full speed at a stone wall hoping to take cover behind it and already he had lost sight of his company that was just beside him a second ago. He could not help thinking “had they all died already, if they could not make it what hope did he”. Just as he thought this a cannon ball exploded right in front of him launching him 5 feet backwards.

He lands on his back and thinks “I’m Done”. Just as he was about to give up two faces smeared with mud and blood come drag him over to the wall for cover. Although he could not see them clearly he knew immediately who they were and thanked god they were ok. The first of the two was Colonel George Smith who was battle tested and you could the way he held himself on the battlefield like nothing affected him. He was a tall and on the sporty side.

On his other side was Private Nathan Richards a skinny boy about a year younger than him that Jackson joined the army with. He was a small nerdy kid who always had glasses that looked to be skewer on his face. Though he was a skinny kid when he was just plain scary when he got in battle it was like he was a completely different person. Jackson could remember the shy little kid that was his friend sense they were little always shy and never saying more than a few words if he did not know you. That was not the kid he saw now he saw a creepy smile on his face and had a crazy look in his eyes.

George looks down at Jackson and yells over the shots “GET YOUR ASS UP AND MOVE JACKSON!!!”, and started dragging Jackson over to the wall while Nathan started firing into the ranks of Yankees yelling “YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!" Jackson thought "I have never seen a man reload and fire that quickly before." Nathan was going fast as lightning even going as far as to take rifles of the dead body's and fire down range. All the while yelling like a banshee scaring the hell out of the union troops. they started running from him screaming the southern devil is after us run for your lives. and he started chasing them the only reason he stopped was because George held him back.

they made it to the stone wall and took cover behind it. They were told to hold their positions here at all costs because General Lee was planning to have a huge offensive attack from here tomorrow. Jackson did not see a way out of this they were too close to the Yankee lines they would be overwhelmed soon if something did not happen fast. Just as he thought this he heard cannon fire and quickly thought “for the love of god not again” he heard explosions and braced for impact but nothing came.

He decided to take a peek over the wall and saw the cannons were firing on the Yankee troops and were forcing them back they were saved! Yet as he thought this his hat was shot off by a stray bullet and he decided not to do that again. He finally had time to see what was going on around him and the first thing he noticed was how few of them there was. He turns to George who was keeping watch over the wall in case the Yankee army decided to come back again. “What happened to everyone we charged with around a hundred men and now there’s barely twenty five here?”

George turned to him with a sad smile saying “This is everyone or at least everyone that made it.” Jackson could not believe it these were men he shared meals, jokes, and stories with and now they're just gone all they left on this world are there bloody bodies.

Nathan saw his friend and came over and put a hand on his shoulder and said “it will be alright at least we are still alive.” Jackson stared back at his friend and started to get angry saying “Yes we are alive but these men were our brothers in arms, what am I supposed to say to their children when they ask me where is there daddy?! They had lives too but I guess it’s all ok just because we're alive!”

Nathan looked down and said “No it’s not alright but we can’t dwell on it now there is nothing we can do but make sure they did not die in vain.”

The conversation died off into silence and stayed that way until it started to get dark. Jackson saw this and said “you two get some sleep I will wake yall if something happens.” George put a hand on his shoulder and said “No I will do it I wasn't the one who got hit by a cannon ball today.” Jackson did not have the energy to argue so he decided to see if he could sleep and it wasn't long before he was out like a light.

He woke up and was surprised to see a lot more people along the wall than were there before. George saw this and said “ya they snuck up in the night to get ready for the attack this morning, better get ready the battle will start in about half an hour”.

Nathan woke up shortly after this and they all ate their breakfast in silence knowing what could easily happen to any of them in the next few minutes. They were all counting down the time until it was time to charge down the position and hopefully break the union line and force them back. Suddenly it was time and you could tell by the signature rebel yell as all the men charged at the union line ready to give them hell for what they have done to their brothers in arms. Jackson was right along with them charging up to the union line. He looked to his left and saw George with his steel gaze charging right beside him and to his right Nathan with the crazy look in his eyes and a funny smile on his face.

He thought “as long as these two are by my side everything will be ok.” His thoughts were suddenly halted when the union line sent their first volley of bullets at them mowing down about half of their men. He saw this and started to panic thinking “this can’t be right the union line was supposed to be weak here there weren’t supposed to be that many men.” Then with the sounds of cannons men started exploding along with the ground under their feet, but Jackson, George, and Nathan kept charging and made it to the union line but right in front of them was a cannon. It fired right at them and Jackson thought “this is how we die.” And with a boom of the cannon smoke covered where they once were but they

had disappeared.

Jackson, Nathan, and George were thrown backwards. Jackson looked at his two friends they were both bloody and unconscious and he guessed he did not look much better as he slowly faded into the black he heard a voice with a southern accent. “My word what happened to y'all and where did y'all come from?”

All Jackson could say before he fell unconscious was “please help”. Applejack looked at the weird creatures and yelled for Big Mac.

Author's Note

This is my first writing so please give me feedback on what you think good or bad.