CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 10 Wes

CHRISTMAS SEASON ON CAMPAIGN-PART 10

Wes, Nancy’s brother, was kilt at Sharpsburg. All of us in the Third had been through so much and to lose anybody after being in the regiment was hard to endure. All our friends and neighbors have slowly been taken away.

When we first joined up, Nancy’s brother and I had been put in different companies of the 3rd Arkansas Infantry. I was in E company, the Champagnolle Guards and he was in G Company, The Three Creeks Rifles. He was older than me and had some friends in G Company that he wanted to be with. We saw each other each day for a while when we first joined up, but the contact had sort of been less and less over the months. But I did take a portion of any food that Nancy sent me to him.

The Battle of Sharpsburg was a pure hell of a fight. I have never seen such horrible sights. Dead men and horses were everywhere. Wounded men were all over the field. Some were lying there, too hurt to talk. Others were crawling around. Others were screaming in pain. Some were walking or limping to the hospital tents. The stench of blood and gore was in the air. If you weren’t so caught up in fight, you would have retched.