Unknown Soldier

My story is unknown.

I have no name…none marked in a book or on a tombstone somewhere. I came from a farm in south Alabama. During the War, I marched to Corinth just in time for the Battle of Shiloh. Soldiering was no child's play in Corinth or at Shiloh. I was wounded but not seriously. Once we saw that victory at Shiloh would not be, we hightailed it back to Corinth. I was taken to a hospital that wasn't really a hospital at all. It was Corona Female College. General Beauregard had asked the special permission of Mrs. Susan Gaston, one of the few citizens who chose to remain in town after the hostilities began, to use the college as a temporary hospital for us. By the time I got back from Shiloh, Corona was so full of the wounded and dying that I had to take my treatment outside. With my wounded arm, I wasn't nearly as bad off as many of the other poor boys. The docs decided the best thing for my arm would be to take it off. I fussed and argued to save my arm...I wish I hadn't. The nurses, those angels of mercy, did everything they could to make us comfortable in our tents on the grounds. It did me no good. Lacking so much: medicine, attention from the overworked doctors, good food, and warm shelter did me in. My life could probably have been saved but it was not to be. I wasn't in Corinth long until I made it my final resting place.