by Walker Anderson Mary will always remember the screams she had to hear for two years in the medical tents. The squelching of bloody flesh being pressured by ungloved hands, the groaning and crying of boys and grown men alike suffering from grievous wounds and diseases, or an officer just suffering a small gash on his hand. All were treated by them for infections, internal bleeding, blood loss, amputation, etc. She loved to talk to the soldiers she cared for, to hear their stories across this great land from before and during America’s civil war. The surgeons and doctors didn’t like her staying up late to read and pray to the soldiers that couldn’t sleep, either out of the pain or trauma.
She volunteered to join the Nurse Corp at twenty two, way below the age range Superintendent Dorothea Dix wanted. But, when war came to her country she considered it her duty to volunteer for the war effort, just as hundreds of thousands of men had. But, instead of taking life she would be saving it. Mary proved her capabilities when her home town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania made history and the streets were laid with union and rebel dead and wounded. That single day she volunteered for had hardened her. Her stomach accepted the sight of guts, blood, and amputated limbs. The other doctors and nurses there believed she was ready to see more of it. So there she was, shipped off with the Army of the Potomac, a single army larger than the entire military was in any war before in the country’s short history. They were at Petersburg, the boys in blue had Robert E. Lee cornered and would repay him for every loss he inflicted upon the Union, even if it took another one hundred thousand men to lose their lives. It was Mary’s job to make sure said men made it home to their families with as much of them physically healthy as possible. Of course the soldiers loved her, at least the ones that were constantly tended to by her in her medical tent. It didn’t hurt that she was quite beautiful too, enough to have delirious men make proposals to her. She refused them all of course, loving a man who could die the next day from a gunshot, infection, or something else on some distant battlefield wouldn’t have been great for her mental stability. She’d pray with them, read with them, feed them, but she could never love them the way they did her. Until, he showed up at her tent with his smile. He came in with a stray ricochet to the foot, hopping on the other foot while holding onto his friend. They came from General Meade’s attack on Petersburg which led to the siege in the first place. He sounded like some pompous, drunk, Irish fool. At least that was how she saw him at first, a man that was all brash and rude. That damn smile of his, he only smiled when Mary came to treat him, the smile of Connor Sullivan. That darn smile, one she eventually learned to smile back at. Then he came back again after one week of staying and another week back in the fight, but with gangrene on his left pinky finger. No doctor was there, so she cut it off herself. She made sure to berate him for his carelessness, she didn’t know why she was so mad about him in particular. But, the amputation was enough punishment for him, she thought. After another two days of having to see his fun smile and cheery enthusiasm he had whenever she smiled back, he returned to the field. Connor came back again after a stock of gunpowder was set off, leaving him with temporary paralysis in his right arm which was filled with wooden splinters. Yet again Mary took care of his injuries and had to endure his open, tooth smile with her own, and his own loud laughter with her own. They stayed together talking in the night when the other patients slept. Every night after they talked again until one morning she found him not in his bed. He left a note claiming he would see her once again soon. The Battle of the Crater was a rough day for everyone. Hundreds of men were led to their deaths with even more being wounded in the engagement. Connor yet again came back to Mary, now with a head injury from falling into the Crater a little too hard. She made sure no other nurses were around when she gave him a slap for rushing into what turned into a bloodbath. Connor joked that Mary would kill him out of her sense of worry before the rebels could. She hated when he made those kinds of jokes, but he made all kinds of jokes and they just blurred together. She would always tell him how many times he came close to death, and every time he came back to her it was with a worse wound. He left her yet again, but with a kiss on her cheek and another note. He promised to see her again. Weeks later he returned, but without fresh wounds for her to treat. He came with flowers, covered in dust from galloping horses, gathering dirt on the road leading to camp. Connor walked to Mary with his flowers and wearing his classic smile, repeating his promise to her from his letter that he would see her again. She accepted his flowers with a smile on her face. Then she went back to her duties, stichting and wrapping up wounded men. After weeks of letters being exchanged later, Connor came back again, but with a bullet in the same leg that his foot caught and led them to meeting the first time. He was shot at Darbytown Road where Union troops were probing rebel defenses near Richmond. He volunteered to go with his unit, he chose to put his life on the line, again. So once more he limped to her expecting another slap, but all Mary did was hug him in silence. He was bandaged in silence and ate in silence. His smile didn’t make her smile this time as all she did was say one thing to him. “I love you,” and she said nothing more after that. She just left him in the tent in silence. Over another week she learned to smile at him again once he promised her he would hide, not fight, even if it made him feel like a coward. He had done enough in this war that he could sit out a few battles if he was given the chance. He stayed for a few more days doing what he always did, making her smile and laugh as he talked about his friends to her behind their backs. Or he spoke of yet another drunken brawl he had once or twice when in camp. The day he could walk out of her tent Connor finally gave a reply from her proclamation that at this point was several days ago. “I love you too.” After that both of them didn’t see too much action over the next few months. Until, the Union finally broke through to Petersburg and Robert E. Lee ordered a full retreat from the city and the capital, Richmond. General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the Union army to chase Lee. Mary felt nervous and relieved at the same time, with Richmond under occupation the war would be over soon. Both her and Connor’s terms of service would end and they could leave together. Connor was prepared to fight one last time for his country and go home with what he hoped would be his new wife. Lee had surrendered after a short battle at Appomattox Courthouse. As Lee rode out after his surrender to Grant all of the rebels went home. Everyone either had a somber drink or were cheering all across the camp. Mary waited at her tent as less than one hundred wounded men limped or were carried into the medical tents. None of them were Connor, then she learned only fourteen men were killed in the engagement. She still waited for him as the soldiers that took part in the battle marched back into the camp. She thought of their talks, their confessions, his jokes. She thought of what she loved the most about that man, that damn smile. She saw those fourteen bodies being carried into camp with tears in her eyes as she saw Connor being carried into her tent one last time. It suddenly reminded her why she didn’t want to get attached to a soldier. Now, she would never see his smile again, nor would he see her smile back at him again. Comments are closed.
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LRHS Literary Magazine StaffEditor-in-Chief:
Alejandra Jones Senior Editors: Sariah Meeker Lee McCormack (fall) Artistic Editor: Bryson I. White (senior) Instagram Editor: Rania Brown (senior/fall) Editors & Staff: Sophia George Blase Harriss Meaghan Kelly Chloe Meeker Adrian McCall Liliana Palermo Estefania Quintino(spring) Katelyn Ranheim Maria Rodriguez (spring) Mario Rodriguez (spring) Livia Weekley Faculty Advisor: Ms. Sarah White Spring 2024 Table of ContentsArtwork~"Beyond the Storm" by Kennedi Ward
~"Forest at Night" by Richard Bui ~"Dulce Tentasion" (Sweet Temptation)" by Maria Rodriguez ~"High Priestess" by Yamil Hernandez-Santiago ~"Echoes of the Mind" by Estefania Quintino ~"Tigre Real" by Mario Kelecic ~"A Glowy Night" by Richard Bui ~"Modern Musings" by Alejandra Jones ~"Maximum Efficiency Soul" by M.T. Foxtrot Poetry~"Trauma Loop in the Cradle of Life" by M.T. Foxtrot
~"I Am the Daughter of My Father" by Mary Boyce Williamson ~"Devout" by Belladonna ~"Line" by Mary Boyce Williamson ~"Tangled: A Villanelle" by Anonymous ~"The Last Nineteen Trumpets" by Sydney Giles ~"The Dryad and the Woodcutter" by Sariah Meeker ~"Void Awakening" by Zamir Ruck ~"It's Not the Ends, Just the Means" by Liliana Palermo ~"What You See When You See Me" by Kira Steverson ~"Deux ex Machina Moritur in Sola Cordis" by Kam H. ~"A Secret Society" by Sophia George ~"Fine" by Victoria Cook ~"Forgot My Watch" by Deniz Kara ~"Leaves" by Leo Marx ~"Paradox" by Leo Marx ~"The Pit" by Quinn Kelleher ~"The Freedom of a Jellyfish" by Kayla Ruffin-Winn ~"Platonic Nature" by Riley Butler ~"Life Imitates Love" by Claudia Wright ~"Towards Shore" by Caitlyn Kiefer ~"A Lover's Sun" by Anonymous ~"Bloody Halberd" by Zamir Ruck ~"To Know Me is to Know Them" by Reagan Rawls Fiction & Prose~"Fireworks" by Lemon Pepper
~"Twenty-Four Hours" by Lauren Williams ~"Fear" by Tiger Royal ~"A Soldier and a Nurse Share a Smile" by Walker Anderson ~"Mental Photography" by Heaven Robinson ~"Felled Crows" by Meaghan Kelly ~"A Few Thoughts on the Matter of Sign Writing: A Tribute to Creative Writing II" by Sariah Meeker and Benjamin Bradley ~"To Live for the Hope of It All" by Lily Fields ~"Two Sides and One Sun" by Ilya Kalinin Fall 2023 Table of ContentsArtwork~"Jellies" by William Lemaster
~"Mini Landscape" by Richard Bui ~"Leesville Lion" by Bryson White ~"Zuzus bday 4 skool" by Rose Van den Troost ~"A Study in Winter" by Chloe Meeker ~"Les Plaines Liminales et Étranges" by Bryson White ~"Night Sky" by Richard Bui ~"Sunrise" by Elizabeth Cawley Fiction & Prose~"Retribution Through Strife" by Nikholas Svajlenka
~"To a New Frontier" by Nikholas Svajlenka ~The Storm's Echo" by Meaghan Kelly ~"Lines" by Meaghan Kelly Poetry~"Sailor" by Caitlyn Kiefer
~"Walk-on" by Caitlyn Kiefer ~"Connection" by Riley Butler ~"The Sun Rises in the West for it Falls in The East on Many" by Nikholas Svajlenka ~"What if" by Sariah Meeker ~"Dark Cold Alone" by Jeanne Baker ~"Deceiving Heart" by Jayana Russell ~"The Life of a Wave" by Sophia George ~"The Melting Snow" by Sophia George |