Author Games: Golden Age

1860s: Marko Smith {@AlaskaDrawing}

Name: Marko Smith

Age: 22

Sex: Male

Decade: 1860's

Location: Indiana, U.S.A

Appearance: Marko always had a way with women. It might have been because of his cool blue eyes, icy and calculating, or perhaps it was his smart remarks, meaning both jokes and actual intelligent conversations. His hair was a favorite of the ladies too, dark brown and slightly wavy. Locks would crest over his eyes and hide the bright blue in shadow. At the beginning of his life, Marko kept a clean-shaven face, making sure that his ever-growing scruff wasn't present. However, as the war continued for years, and the stress of battle started to get to him, Marko stopped shaving and allowed a mustache to grow.

When the war had started, he was fit from working on the farm alongside his parents. He could have moved out earlier, but his father was growing older and needed a pair of hands on the livestock and fields. Even still, as the Civil War went for a longer period of time than anticipated, Marko grew thinner and thinner. Eating hardtack and drinking coffee didn't do much for one's body. Marko had two scars along his shoulder and leg. One was from a gunshot wound, right to the calf, and the other was from a bayonet, barely missing his heart and instead catching the skin just above the vital organ. He had prominent cheekbones, which became even more present throughout the war, and along his body lay multiple bug bites, from mosquitoes, gnats, and flies.

He was a tall man, which didn't help him to become unnoticed among the lines of Union soldiers. He rose to a height above six feet, taller than most men of that time. The average soldier was about five feet and eight inches tall, smaller than Marko which he had no appreciation for. Where were the Johnny Rebs going to aim? The first head they saw with certain clarity. Marko almost always wore his Union uniform, proudly displaying it before, well, all of the other soldiers. When they marched through the towns, he tended to try and clean up the uniform before then, he wanted to look immaculately groomed, even though nobody expected that from infantry.

His hands were well worn with callouses, while the rest of his body was as muscular as it could have been. Marching for days on end made his legs stronger, while smashing the hardtack with the butt of the rifle did the exact same thing for his arms. Marko not only marched, but he held himself high while doing it. During the marches, men would collapse from heatstroke, or just hold themselves in a manner that showed they were done. Done with this world and the war. Even if Marko was hot and exhausted, he still walked with an air of confidence. Not only did the way he held himself show some type of leadership, the way he talked did as well. Marko had a quiet voice, but every single word that came out of his mouth demanded attention. Every sentence was said with perfect articulation and well thought out words. Many of his comrades held him in a high respect for that fact.

Personality: Marko was always a free spirit. Whoever he met he would offer them a large smile, a helping hand, and sometimes even his whole day. Just to make someone happy he would do any variety of things. He lived for the satisfaction of making someone laugh, or the joy at seeing a person's grin. Once he joined in with the army, he made lots of new friends with his largely fun demeanor, but as he encountered battles, he realized that life wasn't all fun in games. Death was often a very present factor. He slowly changed from that moment on, becoming more closed up and not sharing his feelings very often. That didn't make him any less helpful or kind, but it twisted him from an innocent young boy to a man who had seen his share of horrors.

Even still, throughout it all, he kept a sense of humor. Marko joked around with his fellow soldiers day and night, making up poems about the bugs that daily rampaged their tents and feasted on their bodies. He would share these jokes, poems, and songs while standing on his feet, sweeping his arms around while making sure that everyone was having an enjoyable time.

He was a very religious man, and leaving out a picture of his family with his two brothers, mom, and father, he only had the Bible to keep him company on those cold nights. He found reassurance in their words and often wrote in the margins of the worn out paper, sharing stories and horrible images. He wrote more often then he spoke, it was a way to get all of his feeling inside of him out there. Often he would store unsent letters between the pages as bookmarks for reassuring verses and chapters. Just like almost any soldier in that time, he held his faith as a saving grace. It offered him hope when there was no hope to be found.

And yet even still, he held a confidence like no other. While seeing even the strongest men fall to the Minie bullet or the bursting pieces of shrapnel, Marko kept his wits about him and always chose the smartest path. He always considered himself as an average man, but when seen in the midst of screams, smoke, and blood, he might just seem to be a different person. Even while being kind and caring, he will serve the Union by killing the Confederates. It hurts him, it hurts him so much to see the men fall, but he doesn't show them mercy.

Background: Marko never knew that he was basically adopted. It had never occurred to him that he didn't look quite like his parents or his brothers, but even still, he was a member of that family just as much as their real children were. He was taken care of by a farmer and his wife. Two lovely people, or at least, the mother was. Marko's father didn't show his love very much, but even still, showed the boy the ways of life. He worked on the farm from almost the very start of his adventure in a whole new world. However, he was an explorer, always curious about the environment around him, and daily tried to make his escape. While he didn't necessarily dislike planting the crops, he didn't like it very much either. Walking around the forests made him happier than envy thing else would. Well, besides messing around with his older brother Jackson.

As Marko grew, he started to become even more distant from the farm, always yearning for something more out of life. That's why he took every chance he could get to ride the horses into town and help out in the mercantile, or perhaps the families who came through the area, looking to go farther west. He became a popular face in the town, a welcome man. Everyone knew him and he knew everyone.

However, after the attack on Fort Sumter, everything changed. He was twenty at the time, courting a young lady and ready to settle down and make his own living. But once he heard of the war that was bound to happen, Marko got ready to make his escape and join up with the the Union.

It wasn't too long before newspapers were full of news about the war. Oliver P. Morton, the governor of Indiana at the time, sent news out to everyone, asking for volunteers to help battle against the Southerners. The Confederate States of America as they were calling themselves. Marko, despite his community wanting him to stay, decided to leave town and join up.

When he arrived in Indianapolis he was asked a series of questions during the recruitment stage. He had to be over eighteen to fight in the army, and had to have at least the four front teeth, top and bottom, so that he could easily put the gunpowder inside of the barrel. He was immediately put into the 7th Indiana Infantry Regiment, as a healthy young man. Overall, Indiana had over three times the initial quota of volunteers needed.

From then it turned into a struggle for his life. At first it was just training and then came the battles. Battle after battle. Casualty after casualty. And that is where he is now, amidst the struggle that comes with war.