Only Ghosts Came Home

“Stop shooting! Stop shooting! He’s a woman!  Oh my God!  It’s Adell!”
Emmett adjusted his grip on her crumpling body as she died.

            “How did Pickett not know the difference between a boy, and a beautiful woman posing as a man? I always knew he was the goat of his class at West Point, but this, will forever destroy his credibility as an experienced officer in my eyes,” Emmett said to Lieutenant Potter.

“You know Colonel, you must take her from the field! She won’t be properly cared for here, if you don’t. She’s a Confederate on northern soil!  Leave now, and quickly!”  The two men shook hands looking directly into each other’s eyes for a lingering moment, and then Lieutenant Potter turned and ran to rejoin their unit.

The sky in Gettysburg was gray and the air was heavy with gun smoke. He could taste the sulfur and the smell of it, burned his nose.  Emmett could barely see as he quickly withdrew from the field carrying her body.  He found a cove nearby where he rapidly wiped the blood and sweat from his body, and changed into civilian clothes.  He had always kept them in his saddlebag, and never understood why.  

  As he traded the civilian clothes with his uniform, he realized the sounds of the battle had died down.  He remounted his horse, and began riding away from Gettysburg.  For the first time since the battle had begun, he suddenly realized how gruesome, and ugly, the last few days had been.

He passed field after field strewn with dead men and horses.  Then, there were more, larger fields where hundreds of prisoners wandered around, many wearing bloody bandages, limping and being helped by fellow soldiers. The rest were grimy, sweat-stained, and stumbling utterly exhausted.  Many were badly wounded.  Some were sick. Regardless, no one was helping them.  No one seemed to care.

He couldn’t believe how life had changed, and how confusing and cold it had become.  He couldn’t understand what might have happened to draw Adell here.  Would he ever find out why she had become a soldier?  “This can’t be happening! God, let me wake up from this nightmare!”

He was suddenly startled from his thoughts, by a group of Confederate soldiers leaving the field. “What in God’s name are you doin’ here?” A soldier yelled out to Emmett.  “Don’t you know there’s a war goin’ on? You’ll git yourself kilt!”

“I’ve collected my son’s body,” Emmett yelled back.  The soldier nodded his head, and continue struggling along. They all looked so apathetic. For the first time in almost two years, he felt completely alone.  Even when he and Adell were separated during his battle engagements, he felt her presence. When he lay in the hospital injured, he felt her with him.  He had never felt alone before, even on the darkest nights, after the men were asleep, and it was so quiet. He could always hear her whispering to him.  He had a goal, a mission, and that was to come home to her alive, where she would be waiting for him. The day turned into night, and still he pushed on tirelessly.  The moon shone brightly as if to guide him home.<