So there I was, In the bloodiest battlefield of the Civil War, Antietam! As I was walking through the battlefield I saw my friends and others from my regiment fallen. How did I survive the bloody battle you may ask? You will soon find out.

“Robert let’s practice!” yelled someone from my regiment.

My name is Robert Shaw and I am a soon to be general.

“Alright I’m coming!” I shouted back.

When I rode over to him I found out that It was Nathan calling me, my best and favorite solider.

“So what do you need help with?” He replied, “I’d like to practice with my buoyant.”

  I practiced with him for awhile until orders came in to file out, I wasn’t worried at all.

When we arrived we were told we would be in the middle of all the troops. When the first shots were fired I felt a sense of excitement that we may win, despite others thoughts, boy was I wrong, after those few minutes the Confederates came after us like a wildfire. I narrowly missed a flying bullet.

Nathan ran over to my side looking worried. “George, I don’t think we’ll be able to make a comeback in this battle, thousands from the Union are dead, the Confederates are about to win again!”

After I heard that I ran up to the front and began to fight. When I got up to the front of the battle I saw a lot of people fallen. I heard a boy calling for help so I ran over to help him. when i got over to him i saw a bullet in his leg, he said that his name was Stephan Kyle. I carried him into a clearing and told him I’d come back to get him after the battle was over, I then told him that it may not be me that comes back but another solider for my regiment.

Before I could leave he held onto my leg, he whispered “Don’t take me to the nurses. If you do they’ll have to take off my leg for they don't have the time to take the bullet out themselves, could you please try to take it out for me? If you try and you can’t, I’ll understand, but could you please try?”

When I heard this, I realized how true he was. The nurses would just cut of your leg if you had a bullet in it, tons of soldiers i knew now had only one leg or arm. I may not have known Stephen for long, but I didn't want him to g back to his family in a bad state just because I wouldn’t help him.

“Alright, I replied, I’ll try, but you’ll have to bite down on something because it will hurt.”

I took out my bayonet and a hanker-chief I had. I put the banker-chief in his mouth. Before I used the bayonet I looked in the wound to see where the bullet was, It was right next a big bl2ood vessel, if he would have gotten shot a few centimeters up, he would have already of been dead for bleeding out. Thank goodness I pushed it out the first time I tried so I didn’t cause too much pain, but I could tell by the look on  his face that it still hurt pretty bad.

“Thanks so much!” Stephan said, “You just saved my leg!”

“Of course Stephen” I replied, “ But you do know It may get infected, and if that happens, your leg will have to come off anyways.”

“I know” Stephan replied, “But I had to give myself the chance, I don’t want to go home just because of this injury, do you think my regiment will make me?”

“I’m not sure Stephan” I said, “But if you do stay out here, your giving yourself a high chance of your leg getting infected, It wouldn’t be smart of you to stay, you should rejoin a regiment after your leg gets better, besides, you probably couldn’t keep up with the rest of the soldiers anyways”

“Your right” Stephan replied, “ Is there any possible way you could take me home with you? I know it’d be hard, but is there anyway that you could?”

“Okay, I can find a way to take you back home possibly, where is your home?”

“It’s in the new state of Kentucky.”

“Your in luck,” I replied, “That’s where we are heading next, I’ll take you on the wagon.”

“Thanks so much, what is your name?”

“My name is General Robert Shaw”

All of a sudden a heard a loud cannon fire.

“I’ve got to go now, but, I will be back”

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When I got back onto the battlefield It looked as if the battle was just a bad as ever.

I rode up to Nathan and asked about the casualties on both sides he told me there were 12,000 for us, and 10,00 for them. It’s a surprise I survived this battle, almost all our troops are gone. I survived this battle, but what about the rest to come?