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Hey y’all,<br />
How y’all doing today? My name is Henry. I’m gonna tell y’all bout my growin’ up during the Civil<br />
War. About 30 years ago they wrote a book called The Red Badge of Courage bout me. I was called th’ youth.<br />
I thought goin to war would let me look good witth’ pretty ladies and I would come back a hero, well I eventu-<br />
ally came back a hero but all that dirty stuff I saw, I had to do a little growin’ up first. My mom did always<br />
tell me to fight honestly and squarely even if it means sacrificing my life. Well I wasn’t really in the war, I<br />
waas something called a flag bearer. So this war was between the blue guys, the Union Army. That was me.<br />
And the gray guys, the Confederates.<br />
I’ll just skippity to the best part. We had just finished a battle, we had fought th’ battle hard but we<br />
didn’t get to where we wanted to be. When we met up with th’ other regiment, they all harassed us cause we<br />
didn’t get to Whiterside. All of us felt a little bad and a tiny bit uppity, but then some of th’ men came back<br />
and said who was that little lad what wuz carryin’ the flag. He was right in th’ front where he was suppose<br />
to be. He and his friend Wilson were doin’ a great job. I can’t believe that the lieutenant said good job to me.<br />
I was some jimhickey lad helping out and I’m getting noticed by the lieutenant. So we trudged on and on and<br />
soon enough I saw men ducking and dodging past shells that were bein thrown in buckets. The shots of the<br />
rifles were so loud I felt like I was just sittin’ in between two gunmen. I saw two regiments fightin’ in a separate<br />
battle with two other regiments. In a different direction, I saw a big brigade trying to drive the enemy<br />
from some woods. After a little while I saw that same brigade marching out with its English style formation.<br />
As I was standin’ away from the battle the rifles stopped. I heard men shouting, it came from the blue men,<br />
and I could see our flags raised in the air. Everything was quiet for a while, but then all of a sudden rifles<br />
started goin’ off an’ over the hill I saw bunches men a swarmin. Two big waves of gray and blue were goin’<br />
at each other. The advantage was goin back and forth, but both sides were goin’ at it while screamin’ and<br />
yelling. Men fought over positions to be behind trees and fences. Men were being assaulted left and right. An<br />
enemy’s line was comin’ within range. All our men suddenly froze, they all started firing their rifles without<br />
command. The enemy took great position on th’ fence that was separating the two regiments. Th’ blue started<br />
to bleed badly and bodies began to drop. The blue regiment was told to charge ‘em, they had to go farther.<br />
Soldiers began to leap forward and blue started to feel a bit of success. A big cloud of smoke was over the<br />
fence and behind it lay bloody soldiers and rifles on the ground. Everything was going through my head, my<br />
thoughts were crazy. But then I saw their flag waving and I just knew that I had to get it. Getting that flag<br />
meant everything to me. My friend went towards the flag and wrenched it from the color bearer as he died.<br />
We finally got the flag, we all threw our caps in the air and we had four prisoners.<br />
It was probably the best feeling in my whole entire life when my friend and I rested in the grass with<br />
our treasures.<br />
(ispired by The Red Badge of Courage)<br />
40<br />
Jared Bernstein