A Country Divided : Through Blood United

The Battle of Antietam: Amputation

"Bring in the next one!" Shouted an unfamiliar voice. His voice sounded tired and impatient.

I slowly blinked awake to find Johnathan's face in front of mine. He was carrying me like a baby to an abandoned barn house that served as a make-do hospital for injured soldiers. Once he saw my eyelids flutter open, he smiled and chuckled softly.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," he gently said, making sure that I wasn't hurting as he hoisted me onto the hospital bed: two barrels and a door.

The stinging pain erupted again in my leg, but the pain was far worse than the pain I experienced when I first got shot. Along with the sharp knives that seemed to stab into my shin, my lower left leg ached from the pain.

"Ow, why does my leg hurt so ba-" My voice quickly faded away when the doctor beside me shined a knife in the sunlight.

I nervously gazed at what looked like a butcher apron that was strung around the doctor's neck. Blood was clustered in the center, and he must have wiped his knife on it after performing surgery on someone.

My eyes widened in shock, and when I tried to move, I couldn't. I was simply too weak to try and escape.

My words were peppered with a shaky, scared tone. "Doc, what are you going to do with that kni-"

The doctor cut off my words when he placed a thick towel in my mouth, taking me back to when Milo put a towel in my mouth when he fixed my thigh wound. The thought quickly faded out of my consciousness when the doctor spoke once more.

"Bite the towel, it's going to hurt," He said coldly, his voice showing no sign of remorse or mercy. In fact, his voice was drained of any emotion, which creeped me out even more.

Johnathan suddenly took my hand in his and squeezed it as the doctor then shoved his knife into the base of my knee. I screamed in agony through the towel in my mouth, and Johnathan held my hand tighter, trying to give me more comfort that I desperately needed.

"Why does this hurt so much?" I shouted, my voice muffled. I squinted in pain as the doctor continued to slice my leg in two. "Stop! Please, doctor stop! You're cutting off my leg!"

"It's what has to be done," he replied, his breath feeling like ice. "The shot went into your bone, so amputating your leg would help."

I then passed out after my emotions took over, and I was finally able to escape the pain and enter a sleep that I called bliss.

***

Once I finally woke up, I was still laying on the makeshift hospital bed. My eyes were instantly drawn to my left leg, which ended at the bottom of my knee. Johnathan was dozing off next to me, his soft snores echoing in the barn house. I was surprised that I wasn't moved from my "hospital bed".

I rubbed the stub just below my knee that was covered in gauze. It was obviously aching from the sudden surgery. I also realized that the doctor didn't reveal my real gender. Maybe it was because the surgery was so sudden and that the injury wasn't on my chest.

I sat up slowly and groaned in pain. I slumped my shoulders over my legs and began to cry. I knew that I could never get my leg back and that I probably would never be able to walk again.

The quiet sounds of my soft sniffles managed to wake Johnathan up. He quickly rose out of his seat and rushed over to me.

"Evangeline, are you okay? What's wrong?" He flung a series of concerned questions at me.

"I'm fine." I wiped the last tears off of my cheek. "I'm just trying to cope with the fact that I might never be able to walk again-"

My voice trailed off as I noticed a small wooden peg by the entrance of the bar house. I felt an idea spring into my mind.

Maybe I could still fight.

I pointed to the peg. "Jon, can you get that? And maybe a gauze too?"

Johnathan nodded and ran over to the wooden peg. He picked it up and set it down next to me on the "hospital bed". He reached over to a nearby shelf and set a roll of gauze made from burnt horsehair on my side.

I then began to attach the wooden peg to my left leg, making sure it fit comfortably. I tied the string of gauze around my leg, connecting the peg and the base of my knee. I tied the gauze in a tight bow to fully secure my new lower left leg.

I hopped off of the hospital bed to test out my new leg. Instead of landing perfectly like I had hoped, I tripped over the peg and tripped and fell directly into Johnathan's warm arms.

"Sorry-" I stammered awkwardly, my face turning a bright cherry red. "It's just that-"

Johnathan laughed and set me back on my feet. "No, it's fine. You basically have a new leg, and you're not supposed to walk."

I then glanced at him, smiled, and began to take small steps with my new leg. To Johnathan, I looked like I was walking on a tightrope, my arms outstretched for balance.

After a few minutes of walking back and forth on my peg leg, I began to start jogging. The adrenaline that slowly pumped through my veins helped my maintain my balance, and I was able to learn faster.

"Evangeline, don't try to run!" Johnathan shouted protectively. "You'll fall!"

I rolled my eyes and sped up to play with him a bit. "I'll be fine!"

I ran back toward him and skidded to a stop, and I was finally a master at maneuvering on my new leg, which was surprisingly no time at all.

"Johnathan?" I asked him as I strapped my backpack over my back and scooped my rifle into my hands.

He grabbed his own rifle and gazed back at me, a confused expression cemented onto his face. "What is it, Evan?"

"Let's meet Milo and keep fighting."

"What? Are you crazy?" Johnathan shouted in pure shock, his hands at his temples.

"No, I'm not crazy," I replied snottily. "I want to keep battling. We have a war to win!"

I ran out of the barn house as fast as I can with my new peg leg and headed back for Milo who was waiting for me, my gait with a slight limp. At my top speed, I could probably be a bit faster than someone's normal walk.

"Evangeline, come back!" Johnathan shouted, not realizing that he should most likely use my nickname, Angel.

Milo began to run over to me, but once he saw my "new leg" he stopped completely, his face scrunched into a very confused expression.

"Uh, Angel?" he asked, using my nickname. "What's that on your leg? And why?"

I pouted and rolled my eyes in an irritated fashion. I seriously don't want people asking me questions like that because I'll have to give them a very long explanation. For Milo's case, I tried shortening my words. "Ok, so I didn't have a lower leg, and I wanted to walk and keep fighting in this battle, so I found the nearest thing and tied them together."

I lifted up my left leg to show him my new prosthetic.

."I guess that's alright," Milo chuckled. He then glanced back at the Northern troops marching beyond the corpse-ridden cornfield. "Hey, if you're feeling up to it, let's follow Burnside's corps and help him with whatever he's doing."

Johnathan chimed in. "I think they're going to a bridge be Antietam Creek to try and take it back from the Confederates."

"Seems good," I added as I ran toward the marching troops. "Let's go!"