A Country Divided : Through Blood United

The Battle of Antietam: Chaos

The cheerful sun boasted soft, brilliant rays into the familiar wedge that Milo and I shared. Milo was already wide awake, shuffling around the small tent. He packed everything he needed into his backpack. By the end of his packing, his backpack looked like it was going to explode.

    "Do you seriously need all of that?" I asked through a tired yawn.

    Milo turned toward me slowly, his backpack sloshing over on his back. He grunted and rolled his eyes in irritation. "You'll never know when you're going to need some of this stuff."

    Our little conversation was interrupted by hundreds of cheers and laughs from the Northern militia. The laughs caused curiosity take over my brain, and I then rose out of bed, still in my uniform from yesterday. I joined the army around a week ago, and people stayed a little skeptical about my name: Angel. I stuck my head out of the wedge and glanced on what was occurring.

    A rather small man approached the army on horseback, waving his hand proudly to say hello. He happily exchanged smiles with many soldiers who were clearly glad to see him.

    "Oh!" Milo chimed in. "That's Little Mac!"

    "Little Mac?" I repeated.

    Milo nodded ecstatically. "Yeah, he's here to replace the old general. H's obviously loved by the soldiers."

    "Is he the new General?" I asked again.

    Milo simply nodded just like before. "Mhm. Hurry, get ready and throw on your eyepatch on your purple eye, since we're going to be moving near Sharpsburg, Maryland."

    "What? Since when?" I said as I slipped my eyepatch onto my eye.

    My friend laughed and then rolled his eyes jokingly. "Since today, you dunce. It's September 15th."

***

    I woke up not to the sun's light, but the moon's soft white glow. It wasn't enough to push me out of my makeshift bed, but the loud sound a horn certainly was. I reluctantly sat up and quickly changed into my navy blue uniform.

    "What's the horn for?" I asked Milo as I slipped my eyepatch onto my purple eye.

    "Hooker's calling on our corps to attack the Southern left flank," he replied casually.

    I rolled my eyes again for the second time in two days. "I don't really understand how you get all this information without talking to Hooker himself, but I won't pry."

    As Milo and I dashed out of our tent, I took a quick glance at the calendar. The date read September 16th. I predicted that if we started marching now, the troops would probably come across the Confederate militia on the morning of September 17th.

    Milo and I scooted in line with the rest of the Hooker's corps, and we were luckily placed next to each other. Major General Joseph Hooker confidently led his troops. I couldn't necessarily see where the troops were exactly going, but I still craned my neck upward in hopes of getting a glance of what our potential battlefield might be.

    I was finally able to catch a glimpse of the battlefield, and it was a... cornfield? I barely manage to see some of the Southern troops that were strategically placed behind the tall stalks of corn in a clearing behind the long cornfield, their brown uniforms helping their camouflage.

    Hooker beckoned for us to follow him through the cornfield. "This way," he rasped quietly.

    Milo and I exchanged curious glances before diving into the corn forest. We pushed our way through the long stalks of corn, our feet crunching on old, fallen corn leaves.