ON SOME NIGHTS
GETTYSBURG
RESTS IN PEACE
room in town was booked so Nancy headed for her studio on Fairfield Road to sleep on the sofa.
She turned in, set the alarm, and fell asleep. The next thing she knew she was being jolted awake by the sound of groaning and crying men, dozens and dozens of them, moaning and screaming, right beside the wall where she lay. Nancy looked at the clock.
The digits registered 3:00 a.m.
Every resident of Gettysburg knows that sooner or later it will be their turn to witness what remains of the bloody trauma buried deep within their soil, so there wasn’t much for Nancy to do but hold fast until sunup. That’s when the screaming began to fade away.
It seems that the land on which Nancy’s studio was built was the triage area for the Confederate field hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. For three days in July 1863, hundreds of men lay wounded
and suffering on that very ground before being piled onto wagons and hauled down Fairfield Road, dead or alive.
Nancy and I walked around the area from where the bloody screams had come. The August evening was silent except for the crunch of shoes scuffling over hard-packed summer dirt.
For the time being, Gettysburg’s living could rest in peace.
© Medium Gail, MediumGail.com
