The next day I awoke to a voice asking the nurse about some of the men. I knew immediately that the voice belonged to Old Pete. He went around to the beds of the different men and gave them all a pep talk as he worked his way slowly toward me. I noticed that everyone cheered up after visiting with The General for a few minutes and thought that I might too, but right now I wasn't in a very cheerful mood. I missed my wife and kids and wanted to get back to my life--The one that I had been born into--not the one that I had somehow been brought to--that I never should have seen.

 

General Longstreet made his way to my bedside, and we began visiting. I wondered if he would remember how I happened to be in his world and if he did I wondered if he would say anything about it to me. He came up and asked about how I was feeling and how soon would I be able to travel. I thought, "Now what does that mean? Are you asking me am I able to come back and join in the fighting again, or are you asking if I am up to traveling back to the 21st century?" That is where I really wanted to be: I had no desire to go back and join in another battle of the war.

We talked for awhile, but I couldn't decided if he knew anything at all about what had happened to us or not. I decided to just wait until I had a chance to escape from that hospital and hope that I could find some portal back to my lifetime. I didn't always get along with my family, but I knew that they would be looking for me. Still they would never think of trying to find a way back 150 years to find me. Who had ever heard of anyone traveling through time like that anyway? The General went on his way visiting with the other soldiers, and I was left to my own thoughts about what I was going to do to get back to the 21st century. I still didn't have a clue--Yet!

 

General Longstreet left the hospital, and some soldier began talking to me--One that had been trying to be friends with me since I had gotten shot. I wasn't really in the mood for visiting, but I didn't really want to be left completely by myself either, so we talked for about half-an-hour or so possibly a full hour. Then he went to sleep; I think he was shot worse than I was. When the soldier went to sleep, I began thinking about how to get out of that hospital and wondering how I could get back to my wife and kids. That stayed on my mind constantly now.

I finally went to sleep and dreamed that General Longstreet came to visit me again. When I woke up the next morning I was feeling much better and couldn't hide that fact from the doctor. Before I knew what was going on, I was being sent back to the battle front. Old Pete himself was there to take me; he was laughing and joking. A person would have thought that the man didn't have a care in the world. No way would anyone have ever guessed that he was fighting a war that had already lasted a couple of years and would last a couple more before it finally ended.

Anyway, as I was saying Old Pete was taking me back to the front line, and we were about halfway there when we heard gunshots ring out and men hollering and horses neighing. The men were definitely in a major battle again. We stopped to listen for a minute before going on--trying to make sure that we didn't run into the middle of the battle. Then after a few seconds we took off at a fast trot. Old Pete got a few steps ahead of me, and I stumbled over a tree root or something and fell when trying to catch up with him. I hit my head on a rock I guess and was dizzy. When I stood back up, I had to lean on my rifle for support to keep from falling again.

 

I shook my head a few times trying to clear the cobwebs from my mind. Finally I could see several people coming toward me in a hard run, but I couldn't make out if they were wearing blue or gray uniforms. I shook my head another time or two and looked again but didn't see a soldier anywhere. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. I felt stranger than I ever had in my life. There coming toward me were my kids and my wife was holding a cold damp cloth on my forehead. She was saying something about me having been in a car accident. She said that I had almost been killed, and I had been unconscious for about six weeks. She also told me that if I hadn't regained consciousness that day the doctors were going to pull the plug on me. That really is what she told me, but I still think I was there in Virginia with General Longstreet.

 

I don't have another way to explain the fact that I now know how to shoot a Musket and about two months after we got back from Georgia a package came to my door delivered by UPS. When I opened it, it included a note signed by General Longstreet himself, saying:

 

"Thank you for your assistance in showing me around in Atlanta that day."

 

Old Pete

P.S. "Here is the musket that you used in Fredricksburg. We all appreciate the help that you gave us in that battle."
 

Now don't you know that musket hangs on the wall over the mantle in our living room for everyone who enters there to admire.