Tuesday, March 24, 2020

“Hello troops, if you didn’t already know, my name is Robert Lee, but you’ll refer to me as General Lee. We have a duty in this nation to save slavery, and to show the North that they’re wrong to make laws that we don’t agree with, but we have to get through them first.”
As Lee continued to rant on towards his soldiers, one of his troops, Shaun, heard something in the distance, a loud, screeching noise moving closer and closer.
“Sir, we have a problem,” Shaun declared.
“That’s the next thing for when I am your General, you  must ask permission to speak,” said Lee to the weary soldier.
“But sir, the Union is here; they’re attacking.”
Lee and many others could now hear the booming noises of the horns, rushing through the air towards their weary ears like a bull to a red cape.
The Confederate army could see them due to it being such a barren place, no trees, water, food… nothing. 
As the Union continued approaching, Lee announced, “battle stations!”
As the soldiers ran around frantically, grabbing their Springfields and some marching cannons, a deputy of Lee’s announced that they were outnumbered by thousands of men. As the two armies started getting closer, shooting began. Cannons bursting cannonballs towards one another, ripping each other heads off. Lee could hear the screeches of agony begin. His soldiers hadn’t been trained for long, so he didn’t know if this was going to turn out well. 
Shaun was one of the many lucky ones who survived the first few attacks from the Union, as well as General Lee.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourselves, boys, there are still many more of them to come.”
“We’re screwed, sir,” said one of the soldiers.
“Do you think I care, private,” Lee stated.
Shaun reached for his Springfield, which he had dropped because the sights he was viewing traumatized him. When he grabbed it, more came. All of the men, gruesomely murdering one another, fought and fought.
“Medic!” Shaun cried across the barren field.
“Yes, sir what’s wrong?”
“My leg has been stabbed.”
Shaun’s leg had been stabbed mightily, leaving a large hole with a wretched stench. As the medic started bandaging his leg, he fell on to Shaun, who was confused, until he realized that he had been blasted in the head by a Minié ball.  Shaun didn’t know what to do except to try to bandage it himself. Afterwards, he went and told Lee the news.
“One of our best medic has been shot, sir.”
“Well that sure does suck, doesn’t it, someone died in a war. Goddammit, get back in there!” shouted Lee
Fighting raged on for almost two days, causing 2,680 casualties for the Union, while the Confederates only had 2,000 casualties. The Union, knowing they had lost way too many men to go on, started retreating. Lee wanted to counter-attack them in order to take control of their forces, but his unorganized army couldn’t counter while they were on the attack, so they stayed back.
“Lee, we won!” shouted a soldier frantically.
“We have won nothing but a mere fraction of the war,” responded Lee. “And at what cost, thousands of our men died.”
The air grew cold as they all realized it was the truth. They had lost so many men, and for no reason, they hadn’t even countered the retreating army, so barely anything was accomplished.
Shaun was now crying in pain. Medics rushed over to help heal the deep trench of flesh he had been given by the opposing side. Some soldiers were ecstatic about winning the battle, others, horrified at the sight of all the dead bodies in the dead area they fought in. Lee was one of them; sadness crept upon him. 
Lee tried to walk away from the soldiers, away from the battlefield, from reality. But he couldn’t escape from all of the dead bodies, craters and bullets everywhere he looked. Now Lee was considering the worst, ending it all. It would happen anyways in one of these battles, he thought. 
He picked up his gun, and bang. The gun had shot as it hit the ground; Lee was happy for his soldiers’ might, and he wanted to go on. 




-Cole Mead








9 comments:

  1. A central idea in this story is that the trauma and horror of war cannot be forgotten, and in times of fighting, everyone loses. Based on multiple hints of emotions given by General Lee and Private Shaun, I think that the author is trying to convey a lesson that all war does is tear down humanity, and leave a mark on everyone letting us know of death and pain. We can apply this to our own life by letting us know that nothing is worth having a war for. No matter race, religion, or political beliefs, the result can never be violence. An example of this is, "Lee tried to walk away from the soldiers, away from the battlefield, from reality. But he couldn’t escape from all of the dead bodies, craters and bullets everywhere he looked." This shows how Lee was rethinking the situation, and atrocity of war.

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  2. I think the message was that all that fighting and war led to only pain and suffering for the soldiers and the families that lost a part of their families and i think this line really supports the central idea, “Lee, we won!” shouted a soldier frantically.
    “We have won nothing but a mere fraction of the war,” responded Lee. “And at what cost, thousands of our men died.”

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  3. I think the message is everyone loses in war and its all just death. i think the line that shows this the best is,"Fighting raged on for almost two days, causing 2,680 casualties for the Union, while the Confederates only had 2,000 casualties." between both sides their where over 4,000 casualties in two days.

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  4. I think the message is winning can be the same as losing. I think this shows that“We have won nothing but a mere fraction of the war,” responded Lee. “And at what cost, thousands of our men died”. If you are not in war and you win bt are not a good sport it is not that good of a win.

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  5. "Lee and many others could now hear the booming noises of the horns, rushing through the air towards their weary ears like a bull to a red cape." I think that this simile is an excellent use of figurative language. It really makes you understand what it felt like to be at the event.

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  6. I liked how when you said, "a loud, screeching noise moving." That really made me feel like I was in the story and could hear the noise. “And at what cost, thousands of our men died.” that makes me think the message was you can win but at what cost. Yeah they won that battle but they lost a lot of their friends and couldn't even stop the Union from retreating. When you said, "could now hear the booming noises of the horns, rushing through the air towards their weary ears like a bull to a red cape." I felt like I knew what was happening exactly with the way you used the figurative language.

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  7. The history comes alive when you introduce that there is still slavery and when you said "to show the North that they’re wrong to make laws that we don’t agree." it shows that the south was still against the north.

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  8. I think your main idea is that "with any battle won, there comes with a price". In this case, the sensory language in this story really made that main idea come to life. "Fighting raged on for almost two days, causing 2,680 casualties for the Union, while the Confederates only had 2,000 casualties", and "“Lee, we won!” shouted a soldier frantically.“We have won nothing but a mere fraction of the war". Both of these sentences really made me feel the hardships soldiers went through in the civil war.

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  9. You really made the history come alive in this piece. I could tell that you were talking about the civil war when you said,"The Confederate army could see them due to it being such a barren place," also when you said,"We have a duty in this nation to save slavery."

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