A Soldiers Story

He felt the bullet enter and felt the ground suddenly come up to meet his backside. He began to wonder why everything suddenly became so slow and why the sounds that he had been hearing suddenly became a blur. His mind raced, at a seeming snails pace, and he began to search for his brother-in-arms and for any enemies.

Suddenly, like a lightning strike, he felt pain, truly unimaginable pain that felt like it was ripping his insides out. He began to slowly understand what had happened and realized that he had been shot in the gut. Most of the people he knew that got shot there died horrible deaths and he truly didn’t want to die that way. As the pain seared throughout his body, he began to pray and cry out to God to help him through this and looked for the flag he had just been shot to defend.

As he searched for the flag his hearing seemed to slowly come back to normal and he could hear the muskets explode on both sides. He spotted the flag through the thick gun smoke and faintly smiled at the sight. He could faintly hear men shouting all around him and knew that every man on the battlefield was needed. He reached for his musket and struggled to sit up, only to find he couldn’t move. He cried at the fact that he could no longer help his fellows, his friends and his family.

He spotted the flag again and gained courage. He prayed for God to pull him through so he could take up the battle along with his brothers. He knew they needed to win here, or the entire country would be lost.

He began to think about how he had always wanted to see southern Pennsylvania. Gettysburg was supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Southern Pennsylvania, but what he had seen so far had not been as wonderful as he had hoped. It seemed that the musket and cannon balls had done their damage prior to his arrival and he wondered if it would ever be the same as it was.

Suddenly the pain became excruciating and his sight began to blur. He noticed that all of the sounds were beginning to slow down and blend together as well. He began to lose his sight as everything went black and the last thing he heard was the voice of peace that told him not to fear, he would be taken care of.

This had been his fourth visit in twenty years to the battlefield of Gettysburg. He walked over the fields where the main battles had been fought and found the spot where he had been shot. A slight pain went through his stomach as the memories came flooding back and he wondered whatever happened to some of his friends.

He lifted his face upwards, towards Heaven and thanked God for his second chance at life. He then thanked Him again that he fought on the winning side and was spared.

He turned and walked towards his family, thanking God that he was able to come home to them. As he drew closer, a tear fell from his eye as he thought about those who never made it home.