A chapter from Banner of Love, coming soon
Chapter XX
A letter from Wayne, that would have surprised both Linda and Alice, was on its way to Ferndale. A letter to Linda from Ray and Alice was on its way to the Jensen’s mailbox that would not reach Linda in time. Linda was unaware that Ray and Alice were on their way to pick her up, so she left for Phillip’s camp with the Jensens.
The letter from Wayne read:
Dear loved ones at home,
I am no longer a part of the confederate army. I was taken prisoner by the Federals but when the Confederates got reinforcements, the Federals ran and left their prisoners behind. It was like a bunch of wild animals stampeding and I guess I got trampled. When I woke up I was alone, in the woods, and neither army was anywhere in hearing distance. My wounds hadn’t quite healed from when Robert saved my life by giving his. Ray said I should go home. My six months enlistment was up long since and I could have honorably, but I was pressed into the battle by my need to do what I thought Robert would have wanted. You see, Robert and I hadn’t been seeing eye to eye about things since Lee invaded the North. I said the South was no longer defending their sacred soil and that made the contention that the North was the aggressor and the South innocent of any wrongdoing bogus; Robert said the Confederate army needed to invade the North so the Federals would realize they needed to stay out of the South. I don’t know who was right; maybe both of us were wrong. Anyway Robert is with our Lord and I’m through with this war.
There the letter, written on a dirty piece of paper torn from a newspaper - badly wrinkled and torn, ended. The family in Ferndale didn’t receive it until the spring of 1864. It came enveloped as a communication from the Army of the Cumberland.
On the other hand, Linda wasn’t at the farm in Virginia when the letter, telling her Ray and Alice would be there shortly after the letter arrived and she should be ready to go home with them.
Linda, with Will and Mrs. Jensen, were on their way to deliver Phillip’s new uniform to him.
But their trip was in vain. Back in June events unfolded to make it impossible. The invasion of the North that had upset Wayne was in progress. Stuart left part of his cavalry to guard the Blue Ridge passes and led the rest of it across the river to feel the right of Ewell’s troops, where Lee had sent him to advance along a broad front and capture Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Early was on his way to Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River and late in the afternoon of the 26th they approached a prosperous farming center on their rout called Gettysburg.
The town was defended by a raw regiment of militiamen mustered in four days earlier and arrived in town only the night before.
Early’s well-armed and perfectly disciplined regiment moved into town like an enormous well-oiled machine and the militiamen moved out. Noting the shoe factory, he sent word back suggesting they restock the much needed item.
One of his men, General Gordon, re-assured the women of the town that all their men were gentlemen and no harm would come to any of the fairer sex. A young girl ran up to him and handed him a bunch of flowers with a note tucked inside from one of the women. He quickly read the intelligences about the whereabouts of 1,400 Union militia defending Wrightsville.
Stuart’s three brigades were in the process of riding completely around the Union army causing whatever trouble they could, not heading his orders to move on and feel the right of Ewell’s troops.
Upon learning the Army of the Potomac was heading west, Lee ordered his army to concentrate and prevent the Federals from further advancement and interception of confederate communications with Virginia. Because he had no contact with Stuart, who was supposed to be his eyes and ears, he ordered the concentration in the area of Cashton and Gettysburg.
On the 30th General Pettigrew, ordered to seize a large supply of those Union shoes spotted Buford’s Union cavalry screening the northwest. It was decided that Heath would go in the following day and flush them out. Hill and Ewell were ordered to Gettysburg to support him.
Major Thomas watched the Confederate forces appear as grisly specters on the drizzly dawn of July 1st. Lieutenant Marcullas Jones saw them too, marching in an eerie procession down the Chambersburg Pike. A Confederate officer pulled off to one side for the infantrymen to pass and the Lieutenant borrowed a carbine and fired at the officer. That hasty and reckless shot started a violent battle. Bullets hummed, hissed, and whistled ubiquitously; Cannon roared, crashing and pealing. The air was filled with smoke, dust, splinters, and blood.
Eli Thomas’ stomach turned and he lost all thought of anything but the struggle on the west ridge of Gettysburg as the Federals dedicated themselves to the fight.
Reynolds arrived just in time to keep the Confederates from forcing Buford off Seminary Ridge, but soon took a mine ball behind his ear and dropped from his horse dead.
The enemy came yelling like demons into the fight and the two sides poured volleys into each other with fourteen North Carolina color bearers falling before the federals.
They drew back to Seminary ridge over the bodies of the blue and gray laying intermingled – some screaming horrifically and frothing at the mouth. Before they could catch their breath, the Confederates were on them again. There seemed to be no end to the fiends. Battery B managed to check the assault for a few minutes with double charges of canister, but the Confederates came on again and again, charging over the bleeding bodies of their own men while up and down the line men reeled and fell. Splinters flew from wheels and axels where bullets bit. The shell burst and shot screamed overhead while drivers yelled at terrorized and wounded horses lunging to free themselves.
I corps fled seminary ridge and headed for Cemetery Hill to wait for reinforcements to take position on Cemetery ridge, little Round Top, and big Round Top. I corps had lost 7,500 men, the Xi Corps suffered a loss of 4,000 as prisoners alone and the Iron brigade was no longer effective. By the time they managed to pull their shattered forces together, there were only 5,000 left, which made them look like target practice bottles waiting to be shattered. The commander of the army of the Potomac informed them he had ordered other corps to concentrate of the hill where the decisive battle would be fought.
Nat lay down for a short nap before the fighting resumed. As he drifted off to sleep, he prayed Mary would still like him when the war was over. He was determined to find out when this war ended.
Wayne wondered how the south could be invading the North when all they wanted was to be left alone. How was a man from Oregon involved in the Confederate’s fight for States Rights – and was that elusive phrase only a ruse to get control of the northern state’s right to decide for themselves about slavery? Was he involved in the wrong fight? Was this a desperate attempt, on the part of a feudal society to hold on to and perpetuate a way of life that civilization had moved beyond?
Linda lay in her bed in Charlottesville and dreamt of her family in the Willamette Valley and walking down a dusty path where she lay on her stomach to watch the Willamette roll by. Then she heard someone beside her and she turned to see Phillip’s grinning face and the Willamette turned into the Rappahannock. She sighed contentedly and rolled over.
The Army of Northern Virginia swept across Emmetsburg Road to touch the crest of Cemetery Ridge and wrecked the battle tested III Corps. When a cannon ball took off its commander’s leg the corps broke up and ran back in confusion. The Army of Northern Virginia mangled the V Corps and beat one division of the II Corps. Men fought hand to hand with bayonet and musket butts midst little trees shattered by shell fire in a peach orchard.
In a wheat field grain was trampled down and dead bodies covered the ground where Union and Confederate knelt thirty paces apart and fired with resounding cruelty. A great tangled area of boulders and stunted trees earned the name of Devil’s den that afternoon.
Each attack was a moment or an hour of concentrated violence. The hillside and rocky woods were blinded with a chocking fog of blue powder smoke, pounded with the unceasing and deafening voice of battle and lit with constant spurts of fire. The air was flooded with the screams of wounded horses and the curses and cheers of men.
Through it all, the Federals managed to hold Little Round Top and the second day’s battle came to a close with the only sounds those of constant agony from helpless wounded men and horses covering the hills, rocky knools, and fields.
Two days of immense savagery ended and as daylight entered the third day fighting flared automatically on Culp’s Hill.
By eleven o-clock the Confederates, weaker by 1800 and fought out, suddenly withdrew. The noise of battle died and there was anxious silence while everyone waited. Two guns fired at measured intervals, and then, at one o-clock, the immense rank of 130 or more guns assembles by Lee, almost hub to hub west of Emmetsburg Road, exploded in a deafening attack. They were again enclosed in a world of violence as the explosions continued to deafen and destroy – mixing metal with flesh and blood in a three hour eruption, intense beyond comparison.
A few miles to the east the cavalry fought a frantic mounted battle. Charging lines crashed into each other at full gallop and Phillip fell to the ground. As the Confederates drew off at last with heavy losses, the exhausted Federals drooped in their saddles.
At three o-clock the guns became silent and a line a mile wide from flank to flank of Confederates came out of the woods, halted, perfected their alignment, and began to roll forward.
Up on the ridge Federal gunners waited briefly and then tore fearful gaps in the unprotected mass of Federal infantry. Even so, a few hundred broke through the Federal line to die at canister and musket range.
As Nat rode through the dead and wounded looking for a friend, he ran across the unconscious body of Private Jensen. While he was in the process of picking him up to take him to a better place to heal, he thought, If you live, you better be found as a Federal. He looked around him and saw a dead Union officer about the size of Private Jensen and switched their clothes. Then he leaned the unconscious man against a tree away from the battle and mounted his horse. A buzz, a blast of intense heat and force knocking him off his horse were his last sensations.
A letter from Wayne, that would have surprised both Linda and Alice, was on its way to Ferndale. A letter to Linda from Ray and Alice was on its way to the Jensen’s mailbox that would not reach Linda in time. Linda was unaware that Ray and Alice were on their way to pick her up, so she left for Phillip’s camp with the Jensens.
The letter from Wayne read:
Dear loved ones at home,
I am no longer a part of the confederate army. I was taken prisoner by the Federals but when the Confederates got reinforcements, the Federals ran and left their prisoners behind. It was like a bunch of wild animals stampeding and I guess I got trampled. When I woke up I was alone, in the woods, and neither army was anywhere in hearing distance. My wounds hadn’t quite healed from when Robert saved my life by giving his. Ray said I should go home. My six months enlistment was up long since and I could have honorably, but I was pressed into the battle by my need to do what I thought Robert would have wanted. You see, Robert and I hadn’t been seeing eye to eye about things since Lee invaded the North. I said the South was no longer defending their sacred soil and that made the contention that the North was the aggressor and the South innocent of any wrongdoing bogus; Robert said the Confederate army needed to invade the North so the Federals would realize they needed to stay out of the South. I don’t know who was right; maybe both of us were wrong. Anyway Robert is with our Lord and I’m through with this war.
There the letter, written on a dirty piece of paper torn from a newspaper - badly wrinkled and torn, ended. The family in Ferndale didn’t receive it until the spring of 1864. It came enveloped as a communication from the Army of the Cumberland.
On the other hand, Linda wasn’t at the farm in Virginia when the letter, telling her Ray and Alice would be there shortly after the letter arrived and she should be ready to go home with them.
Linda, with Will and Mrs. Jensen, were on their way to deliver Phillip’s new uniform to him.
But their trip was in vain. Back in June events unfolded to make it impossible. The invasion of the North that had upset Wayne was in progress. Stuart left part of his cavalry to guard the Blue Ridge passes and led the rest of it across the river to feel the right of Ewell’s troops, where Lee had sent him to advance along a broad front and capture Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Early was on his way to Wrightsville on the Susquehanna River and late in the afternoon of the 26th they approached a prosperous farming center on their rout called Gettysburg.
The town was defended by a raw regiment of militiamen mustered in four days earlier and arrived in town only the night before.
Early’s well-armed and perfectly disciplined regiment moved into town like an enormous well-oiled machine and the militiamen moved out. Noting the shoe factory, he sent word back suggesting they restock the much needed item.
One of his men, General Gordon, re-assured the women of the town that all their men were gentlemen and no harm would come to any of the fairer sex. A young girl ran up to him and handed him a bunch of flowers with a note tucked inside from one of the women. He quickly read the intelligences about the whereabouts of 1,400 Union militia defending Wrightsville.
Stuart’s three brigades were in the process of riding completely around the Union army causing whatever trouble they could, not heading his orders to move on and feel the right of Ewell’s troops.
Upon learning the Army of the Potomac was heading west, Lee ordered his army to concentrate and prevent the Federals from further advancement and interception of confederate communications with Virginia. Because he had no contact with Stuart, who was supposed to be his eyes and ears, he ordered the concentration in the area of Cashton and Gettysburg.
On the 30th General Pettigrew, ordered to seize a large supply of those Union shoes spotted Buford’s Union cavalry screening the northwest. It was decided that Heath would go in the following day and flush them out. Hill and Ewell were ordered to Gettysburg to support him.
Major Thomas watched the Confederate forces appear as grisly specters on the drizzly dawn of July 1st. Lieutenant Marcullas Jones saw them too, marching in an eerie procession down the Chambersburg Pike. A Confederate officer pulled off to one side for the infantrymen to pass and the Lieutenant borrowed a carbine and fired at the officer. That hasty and reckless shot started a violent battle. Bullets hummed, hissed, and whistled ubiquitously; Cannon roared, crashing and pealing. The air was filled with smoke, dust, splinters, and blood.
Eli Thomas’ stomach turned and he lost all thought of anything but the struggle on the west ridge of Gettysburg as the Federals dedicated themselves to the fight.
Reynolds arrived just in time to keep the Confederates from forcing Buford off Seminary Ridge, but soon took a mine ball behind his ear and dropped from his horse dead.
The enemy came yelling like demons into the fight and the two sides poured volleys into each other with fourteen North Carolina color bearers falling before the federals.
They drew back to Seminary ridge over the bodies of the blue and gray laying intermingled – some screaming horrifically and frothing at the mouth. Before they could catch their breath, the Confederates were on them again. There seemed to be no end to the fiends. Battery B managed to check the assault for a few minutes with double charges of canister, but the Confederates came on again and again, charging over the bleeding bodies of their own men while up and down the line men reeled and fell. Splinters flew from wheels and axels where bullets bit. The shell burst and shot screamed overhead while drivers yelled at terrorized and wounded horses lunging to free themselves.
I corps fled seminary ridge and headed for Cemetery Hill to wait for reinforcements to take position on Cemetery ridge, little Round Top, and big Round Top. I corps had lost 7,500 men, the Xi Corps suffered a loss of 4,000 as prisoners alone and the Iron brigade was no longer effective. By the time they managed to pull their shattered forces together, there were only 5,000 left, which made them look like target practice bottles waiting to be shattered. The commander of the army of the Potomac informed them he had ordered other corps to concentrate of the hill where the decisive battle would be fought.
Nat lay down for a short nap before the fighting resumed. As he drifted off to sleep, he prayed Mary would still like him when the war was over. He was determined to find out when this war ended.
Wayne wondered how the south could be invading the North when all they wanted was to be left alone. How was a man from Oregon involved in the Confederate’s fight for States Rights – and was that elusive phrase only a ruse to get control of the northern state’s right to decide for themselves about slavery? Was he involved in the wrong fight? Was this a desperate attempt, on the part of a feudal society to hold on to and perpetuate a way of life that civilization had moved beyond?
Linda lay in her bed in Charlottesville and dreamt of her family in the Willamette Valley and walking down a dusty path where she lay on her stomach to watch the Willamette roll by. Then she heard someone beside her and she turned to see Phillip’s grinning face and the Willamette turned into the Rappahannock. She sighed contentedly and rolled over.
The Army of Northern Virginia swept across Emmetsburg Road to touch the crest of Cemetery Ridge and wrecked the battle tested III Corps. When a cannon ball took off its commander’s leg the corps broke up and ran back in confusion. The Army of Northern Virginia mangled the V Corps and beat one division of the II Corps. Men fought hand to hand with bayonet and musket butts midst little trees shattered by shell fire in a peach orchard.
In a wheat field grain was trampled down and dead bodies covered the ground where Union and Confederate knelt thirty paces apart and fired with resounding cruelty. A great tangled area of boulders and stunted trees earned the name of Devil’s den that afternoon.
Each attack was a moment or an hour of concentrated violence. The hillside and rocky woods were blinded with a chocking fog of blue powder smoke, pounded with the unceasing and deafening voice of battle and lit with constant spurts of fire. The air was flooded with the screams of wounded horses and the curses and cheers of men.
Through it all, the Federals managed to hold Little Round Top and the second day’s battle came to a close with the only sounds those of constant agony from helpless wounded men and horses covering the hills, rocky knools, and fields.
Two days of immense savagery ended and as daylight entered the third day fighting flared automatically on Culp’s Hill.
By eleven o-clock the Confederates, weaker by 1800 and fought out, suddenly withdrew. The noise of battle died and there was anxious silence while everyone waited. Two guns fired at measured intervals, and then, at one o-clock, the immense rank of 130 or more guns assembles by Lee, almost hub to hub west of Emmetsburg Road, exploded in a deafening attack. They were again enclosed in a world of violence as the explosions continued to deafen and destroy – mixing metal with flesh and blood in a three hour eruption, intense beyond comparison.
A few miles to the east the cavalry fought a frantic mounted battle. Charging lines crashed into each other at full gallop and Phillip fell to the ground. As the Confederates drew off at last with heavy losses, the exhausted Federals drooped in their saddles.
At three o-clock the guns became silent and a line a mile wide from flank to flank of Confederates came out of the woods, halted, perfected their alignment, and began to roll forward.
Up on the ridge Federal gunners waited briefly and then tore fearful gaps in the unprotected mass of Federal infantry. Even so, a few hundred broke through the Federal line to die at canister and musket range.
As Nat rode through the dead and wounded looking for a friend, he ran across the unconscious body of Private Jensen. While he was in the process of picking him up to take him to a better place to heal, he thought, If you live, you better be found as a Federal. He looked around him and saw a dead Union officer about the size of Private Jensen and switched their clothes. Then he leaned the unconscious man against a tree away from the battle and mounted his horse. A buzz, a blast of intense heat and force knocking him off his horse were his last sensations.
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