“Wake up!” Shouted my friend, Abby, who I’d been friends with for a few years. I groggily sat up and distantly heard, “We’re here!”
“Where?” I sluggishly responded.

“We’re at Gettysburg!” She said excitedly. We started to get our stuff packed into our soon-to-be crammed bags and then stood up waiting to get in the long, slow-moving line to get off the bus with our school on the Washington D.C. trip. We were at Gettysburg with our tour guide before we headed into Washington D.C. Once we got off the bus it felt great. The air was a bit humid, but nice, and it was cooler outside than it was on the bus full of my classmates. The tour guide had started speaking energetically, but being in the back of the crowd I didn’t hear much.

“Here is a memorial for when…” I had already zoned out. After we talked about the memorial we headed up near it to take a picture of everyone, but it was up on a hill. It had rained recently and the hill was muddy and slippery. Our shoes were sinking into the mud making a slight shwoop as they slid into the damp ground. We pulled our feet out and managed to get to the top of the hill. Tons of chaperones stood on the ground, taking pictures of us. We smiled and were all blinded by the camera flashes appearing at the ends of the parents phones and cameras, but we kept our smiles and stood in front of the memorial until everyone was done. After we carefully walked, and fell, down the hill we got back on the bus to move to another memorial.

We piled off the bus once again, and saw a few different statues flowering the forest border around us. The tour guide, forcing an opposite from the interesting and engaging landscape around us, managed to drone on and on, boring me into zoning out. “The Union had to hold off here against the Confederate and they…” I was tired, and bored, and soon I found myself in a daydream. BANG! BANG! BOOM! “Take cover!” Shouted General John F. Reynolds. A few soldiers sprinted behind a wall of sandbags, willing to give their lives to win the battle against the Confederate. KABOOM! A cannon shot exploded against a wall of sandbags, injuring at least 5 men. General Reynolds aimed down the barrel of his musket, looked past the muzzle, and shot. The spiraling bullet shot out of the musket with nothing but friction to slow it down. The bullet shot straight to where General Reynolds aimed, at the Confederate soldier manning the cannon. The soldier fell, and the Union took the advantage. They suddenly stood up, targeting any Confederate soldier they could see. Men fell from both sides, landing hard on the ground. General Reynolds was nearly hit by a bullet, but he turned to the side. The General knew that this battle would majorly help the chances of them winning the war if they won it, but he wasn’t sure that his men could pull through, as they hadn’t had very much training. The Union men retreated farther into the woods, knowing it would help to cover them against the constant firing of the Confederate army. Shots rang out, hitting trees and the leaf covered ground. The General had no idea how to gain them this victory, but hoped he would soon figure it out. One of his soldiers came to ask him “Sir, we have injured men out there. We’re down tons of men, how are we going to win this battle?”

The General didn’t know how, in fact, he merely drooped his head. Then he got an idea.
       

“Soldier, I have an idea. Tell the men to attack on my signal, bayonets at the ready. As the Confederates moved closer, the soldiers anxiously awaited the signal from their leader. Suddenly, the soldiers heard “ATTACK!” and they raced out of the trees, guns loaded, bayonets attached. The men, although there were losses, kept pushing the Confederates back. The Confederate soldiers left them for the moment, but they wouldn’t stay gone.

“Are you coming, Collin?”  Asked Abby, waving a hand in my face.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah. Sorry.” I responded, feeling embarrassed that I had zoned out. “On my way.” I ran and caught up with our bus group of around 50 people, as I was a little ways behind. The tour guide was moving forward, and I wondered how long I had been day dreaming.

We marched on, seeing one of the other, of the 3, bus groups heading back to their bus. We were the last bus to arrive, but when we got to the next destination it was amazing. We looked out over the hill we were on top of, and saw a valley that eventually rose into another hill in the distance. I stopped to snap a few pictures, and went back to listening to the guide. The tour guide explained to us how the Union had held off Confederate soldiers here and eventually made them retreat, thanks to the leadership of General John F. Reynolds. I worked hard at paying attention, but soon found myself day dreaming again.

“Don’t let them get any closer, men! Our ability to win relies on us not fearing them!”

The men, although they feared for their lives, kept constant fire bombarding the Confederate as they crossed the valley, heading towards the men that were left. General Reynolds had tons of men, but the Confederate had at least as many. They could easily overpower the Union if the General couldn’t think of a plan, and fast. General Reynolds had been in sticky situations before, but never with this many soldiers on both sides. The numbers of the Confederate army were about the same as the Union’s, but they still were a ton of men, and he had his doubts. A sandbag exploded over his head, but that wasn’t the only shot. A shot flew past the horse he had been riding for the big battle, and nearly hit it. Another few bullets whizzed past him, and he turned to see if they’d hit any of his men. While he was turned, a bullet pierced his skull, and shot through his head. Reynolds fell off the horse, and the horse had begun to walk away. A nearby soldier quickly called for the medic, but the medic simply shook his head. The wound was too great. General Reynolds was going to die.

“I know that I will not live through this, but I hope that even without me, the war can be won.” Said General John F. Reynolds, and with that, he passed.

“And then General Reynolds was shot through his head, right over here.” Said the tour guide, still explaining the battle that had happened in the historic place we were at.

“He has 4 memorials, spread around the battlefield. If you see a memorial about a soldier riding a horse, that means they died in battle.” She continued. Afterwards, she pointed over at an old stone tower, and told us we could climb up and look out over the battlefield. The tower was made of smooth slate, although, since it had rained, the stairs were insanely slippery. We started our single file ascent up the hard stairs, and reached an open platform. We walked out on it and looked out over the ramparts, seeing the grassy soil that covered the battlefield. While I was up on the tower, I saw my friend Rhiannon walking towards me.

“Hey Rhiannon!” I said, happy to get to see my friend.

“Hi Collin! This tour is so cool, I love all the different memorials, it’s so cool to see that they did something to remember the war.” Rhiannon explained.
“Yeah, the statues and memorials look really cool. Did you get any sleep at all on the bus last night?” I casually asked her.

She laughed, “Did anyone?”

I laughed with her, and we started to head down the stairs again. Rhiannon started to head down, but I stayed to take a few pictures. On the tower, only me, and another girl named Kristia were left on it. I started to head down, her a few steps behind, and at the bottom of the stairs she slipped and fell. Our parents had been waiting for us to come down, and her mom went over to make sure she was okay.

“I’m fine!” She assured us. We started to leave the battlefield, but we kept moving, slowly, because we hadn’t gotten much sleep. The last night had been a long, bumpy bus ride with incredibly uncomfortable seats.. We headed back to the bus like zombies and started our ride to Washington. Once I had sat down on the bus, and unloaded my no-longer heavy bag I thought back to what I had learned from the tour guide, and my own daydreams.

People have fought hard here, to help us. I reflected. Our lives could have been much different if they hadn’t. I am definitely glad that they did. We drove away, and I looked out the window to see the battlefield behind us, slowly sinking away. I could almost imagine the soldiers fighting on it, reliving the battle they had won so long ago. This was a cool experience, I’m glad I got to do it. I thought, as we turned a corner, and the battlefield was gone, the grassy landscape shrinking away as we continued our trip to Washington D.C.