July 22, 1866

New York City

To The New York Times,

Thank you for helping me share my story, about the Civil War, and my experiences as a teenager and being in the civil war. Going into the war, as a teenager was a very, difficult and exciting experience at the same time. Difficult because I knew everything could go wrong very fast, but exciting because I felt like I had a purpose in life. You see, during the battle of Shiloh, in Tennessee my father had been killed due to yellow fever. Once my family got the news of my father’s death we were all very depressed and saddened by the news. My mother was so depressed that she had hung herself. Now it was only me and my older sister Margaret. I was only 15 at the time so I felt like I needed to be part of something bigger, so I enlisted in the army as an 18-year-old. Before and as I enlisted, I thought of the things my sister had told me. My sister was against any kind of kindness, so much that she didn’t eat meat. So before I went to enlist she had asked me “what will this achieve?”, and “what’s the point of war?”. I pondered these questions and realized I was fighting for the freedom of slaves, and to reunite the Union. So I went on to enlist.

The year was 1863, and the Union had sent me to Mississippi. I had prior knowledge on how to play the drums as a child so I was part of a type of marching band group. Everything was well and it didn’t really feel like a war, we were eating meals and having fun together. We would play games like “chase” and practice our aim with the rifles. But in the back of my head, I knew that If we heard distance gunshots everything would go wrong. Then on a Monday the general told us to move out. Everything was happening so fast but suddenly I was given a loaded rifle and knife, I knew the war was coming. We were going towards Vicksburg, a distant town. I had heard the Confederates there were being supplied with food and weapons by the Mexicans. The general also told us it was really important to capture this point because the river near Vicksburg was holding the two Confederate sides together so capturing it would be crucial. The city of Vicksburg was heavily fortified when we got there with hundreds of cannons. And then suddenly I heard a gunshot, everything became chaotic. Suddenly I was in a months-long battle. During those 3 months I saw my friends die, I was shot, and many soldiers from the union were dying from the disease. I was scared for my life, because of the diseases, even more, scared than getting shot.  In the end, though we ended up winning over Vicksburg and controlling the river. After that, I ran back home and never came back.

From, Kernel