A Soldiers Struggles by Jockulater14

It has been four and a half years since the bombardment on fort Sumter which sent America in the uproar for war. Before the war Pa, Charles, and I had argued about which side to join. PA always sympathized with the rebels for reasons that me and my brother, Charles, could never quite understand. So when the war started our Pa joined the rebels and me'n Charles joined the Union. That was the last day we ever saw our Pa again, he died at the battle of Gettysburg under the command of General Armistead as one of the men the men in the horrible, Picket's charge. when Mother heard that of what had happened to Pa, she and our sister Josie came to us in tears mother saying that she would not have any more of her family blown to bits. That was the last time we saw her, having said "No" to her saying "there's no way we can leave or regiment and go home.

I am now in the Army of the Potomac. My brother is in the hospital with a shot to the leg and when I went to visit him, the Doctor said that his leg would need to come off if he was going to live. It will be strange when I go home with Pa dead and Charles without his leg. General Grant says that the war is almost over after so many battles and so many sights I can think of little except the warm comforts of home and peace.