A Step Back in Time
This week for #showcase-sunday, I wanted to share a piece of fiction that I wrote a while back. I traveling across the south and the east coast of the United States shooting pictures for book about the Civil War and Civil Rights we were making. The book is called Dividing Colors and it took us about a year to complete the whole thing and it was released in July of this year.
The pictures from this post are from a museum in Chancellorsville, Virginia and are part of the book as well. They depict the bloody battle that took part there during the Civil War. As a combat veteran I could relate to the images and the carnage that was taking place, but I could never imagine how it must have been to go against your own countrymen.
Battle of Chancellorsville
Imagine being part of a time where you were thrust into a bloody war against your fellow man and the side you fought for was mainly determined based on where you lived at the time that the war broke out. Prior to the war, you were all fellow countrymen, but during the war, you were supposed to be sworn enemies.
I don't want to focus on why the war was started, or what it was fought over. I am going to try something new and write this post through the eyes of one of the soldiers fighting.
May 3rd 1863
I was awakened by the crack of a rifle, and then started to go off as if in sync with each other. The trees began to splinter near our heads as we jumped up in confusion and grabbed our weapons.
"We are under attack!!" I heard in the distance.
I could barely see through the dense forest as the morning fog was still thick in the air.
What the hell am I doing here? I thought to myself. I am 17 years old and shouldn't even be here.
That was when I could see the first cloud of smoke off in the distance and right after I could hear another crack of a rifle. I had grabbed my rifle and began to run towards the trench we had made on the hill when I saw Private Williams laying there on his back. The blood flowing out of his chest and spurted out of his mouth as he gasped up at me for help. I wanted to stop and help him, but I knew that the enemy was closing in on us. This was an ambush and we were sitting ducks here in the open.
The bullets continued to fly towards me and slam into the trees as I ran towards the trenches. I was relieved to see our Allied forces in the trenches returning fire out into the wood line. This did not slow down the onslaught as they continued to fire from all directions.
It was sheer pandemonium when I got into the trench and began to fire back out into the wood line. The piercing sounds of rifles were soon replaced by the deafening booms of cannons, who's cannon balls shredded anything in its path.
Trees were getting cut down by cannon balls and falling onto our men and crushing them and soon the air was filled with their agonizing screams of pain. We returned fire with our cannons and that seemed to drown out their screams.
Despite our best efforts, the Confederates continued with their determined pursuit and what began as a fight from a distance became a close hand to hand battle for survival.
My heart was beating out of my chest and I knew that my time was coming. I did not have time to reload anymore because the enemy was upon us. Both sides were thrusting their bayonets into each other and I just paused and l had a moment of clarity among all of the chaos.
I saw Americans that looked just like one another killing each other. The only difference was what they were wearing. I began to the about if I were to put on a Confederate uniform if any of the men I had been fighting with the past few months would even take the time to recognize me right now or would they plunge their bayonet so deep into my chest to end my life just to secure their survival for a little bit longer in this ugly war.
I was quickly knocked out of my daydream when a Confederate soldier came at me and Sergeant Porter ran towards him and slammed his butt stock into the man's skull. I remember the cracking sound it made and looked down at the man's lifeless body as blood started to ooze out of his eye socket.
The sound started to go fuzzy as Sergeant Porter grabbed my arm and began to pull me towards the others that were hunkered down in the trench.
Sergeant Porter took a round to the back that ripped through him and he fell to the ground. That was when I stood up and looked into the distance and saw a plume of smoke and then everything went black...
History
During the Battle of Chancellorsville, 30,764 lives were lost. It was the second bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. The Union suffered around 17,200 casualties and the Confederates lost around 13,000.