The Loud family was traveling to Antietam, sight of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The parents thought that this might be a good educational experience for their eleven kids, maybe even a chance to get them a bit of historic culture.

"Come to think of it, seeing where so many men got killed might be a good chance to contact the spirit realm," said Lucy.

"Oh pleash, there ish no way you can contact the shpiritual echoesh of sholdiers who died two shenturies ago," retorted Lisa.

"What makes you so sure of that? The ghosts of those soldiers might still be haunting the fields; the spiritual essence could be strong," asked Lucy.

"Becaushe, there ish no concrete shcientific proof of ghostsh, ergo I doubt you'll contact ectoplashmic beingsh," Lisa answered.

"I just want to see if they'll have any reenactments of the surgeons who were constantly covered in blood and had to saw off the soldiers legs," laughed Lana.

"Those poor guys couldn't put their best foot forward anymore," laughed Luan.

"It's not funny, a lot of those soldiers died from dysentery, because the surgeons used rusty saws and there was disease rampant throughout both sides' camps," Lincoln scolded his older sister.

"Okay kids, we're here, please try to get out in a reasonably normal fashion," Mr. Loud called as he took the first parking space he could pull into. But, as was normal for them, the Loud kids just rushed out of the car and began to walk around. Heading up on top of a hill, the children stopped and looked around.

"I'll bet you anything that there could easily have been a group of soldiers right about here who fought and maybe even died on this very spot," declared Lynn.

"Since when are you a history buff?" asked Leni

"I'm not, I just see a field, I think sport tactics, battle tactics couldn't have been too different," answered Lynn.

"Well, they're a little different, I mean, you wouldn't want to be this high up when there were soldiers firing, that would make you an easy target," said Lincoln. All of his sisters looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"What? I play war-based video games and typically the higher up you are the greater chance you have of being shot," he said.

"Well, there ish one way to be shure," Lisa piped up as she began to rummage through her backpack and then pull out what looked like some kind of large remote control.

"Hate to break it to you little sis, but we're nowhere near a television set," laughed Leni.

"Oh no, thish ish my time musheen! Figured being at the shite of a cataclshymic event might be a good excushe to field tesht my new invention," laughed Lisa, with a slight cackle in her voice.

"Uh Lisa, you do realize that the cataclysmic event you are speaking of is a great battle, there were bullets flying, men dying, and constant smoke in the air, right?" Lincoln warned, with a slight tremble in his voice.

"With death hanging heavily in the air, sounds dreamy," added Lucy.

"And a bunch of dudes crawling through mud, blood and shooting at each other! That just sounds glorious!" added Lana.

"I just said that!" screamed Lincoln. Bright lights suddenly filled the air accompanied by whirring noises. Lily clapped gleefully at all of the pretty colors.

"OOPSH! I got what in Layman'sh termsh ish referred to as trigger-happy! But now I schee that I may have made a bad calculation!" screamed a horrified Lisa. Luckily, when all of the lights stopped moving the Loud family found themselves in what one may argue was a safe spot. Granted, there was smoke and the sound of gunshots and yelling in the air. Looking down at the field they could see two armies fighting each other, carrying old-fashion rifles and using cannons that had not been in active military use for nearly a century at best. But they were standing at the edge of the battlefield.

"Well, this is one history lesson I'm not going to call boring," said Luan. Lori meanwhile started taking photographs on her cell phone.

"No cell service, but nobody's going to believe this!" she said.

"Well, I guess if we just stay at the edge of the battlefield, out of sight, we'll be alright, but Lisa, did you really have to push that button?" said Lincoln.

"Shiblings, I musht apologize. I was sho excited about my invention that I didn't think about the true dangersh involved. When Lincoln pointed out the shimple fact that there were dangeroush projectilesh including lead bullets going through the air at thish schpechific date in history I had already pushed the button," said Lisa.

"Well, we've all had days when we got too excited to think things thru, believe me I've been there. But I say that maybe we should tally off to our own time, wot wot?" suggested Luna.

"Did somebody say Lincoln?" a gruff voice rang out. Horrified, the Loud kids turned around to see four men with muskets wearing what could easily be identified as Confederate uniforms standing right close.

"Uh, his name's Lincoln," stated Leni innocently, pointing at her brother.

"You're not helping!" screamed Lola.

"Well, he's certainly not the President of the Union," said one of the Confederate soldiers.

"Perhaps they're spies, look at that doohickey that pretty one's carrying, only a spy would carry something that odd," said another, a slight drawl in his voice.

"Maybe that kid's related to the President, yeah, and he and his friends are now spying in on us! Nobody would suspect a bunch of kids!" agreed another.

Lynn ran right up to them and said: "Well, you won't find another spy who could do this!" She kicked the first soldier right across both knees with a single sweep of her leg, knocking him off balance. Then punched the second in the stomach making him drop his musket.

"You guys get going! Run serpentine! I'll catch up!" she called as she grabbed the musket and knocked the third soldier unconscious with it. Her siblings began to run down the hill away from the battle. Lynn was so busy concentrating on her last opponent that she did not notice the first one, who, despite lying on the ground was not unconscious, pull out a bowie knife and with a well-aimed throw hit Lincoln right in the shoulder!

Lincoln made a loud gasping noise that caused his sisters to turn around in horror. He dropped down to his knees, holding onto his stabbed shoulder as he looked helplessly at his sisters. Lynn had just used the butt of the musket she was still holding to hit the last soldiers right up the jaw, hard enough for him to fall on the ground dazed. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as she turned around to see her beloved brother badly injured. The soldier who had hit Lincoln seemed to be laughing as he now held his gun and pulled the trigger.

"Here take Lily!" Luna shouted as she thrust her baby sister into Luan's arms and rushed over to Lincoln, Lily's cries being drowned out by the distant gunshots. Luna pulled Lincoln away from where he was but not before a bullet him in the leg. Infuriated, Lynn grabbed the soldier who had injured her brother by the scruff of the neck and screeched: "Why did you do that? I was the one who attacked you!"

"If he's related to the president, that would give old Abe something to grieve!" the soldier answered. Lynn slammed his face into the ground, gave a good solid kick in the face to the one soldier who was still conscious before he could come to his proper senses and grab one of his fellow's guns. She tore off a shirtsleeve from his uniform using a small hunting knife he had before rushing to her siblings.

Luna held onto her only brother, trying to comfort him. She didn't dare remove the knife that was still stuck in his shoulder, for fear that could kill him. She remembered how she used to sing some of her favorite lullabies to him, back when he was just a baby. Lynn rushed over and tearing the shirtsleeve she now carried in two, she quickly used them as bandages for Lincoln's two wounds.

"Can't remove the knife! That'll just increase the bleeding!" she shouted as she did her best to work the makeshift bandages around the knife.

"Lisa! Get us out of here now!" Lori cried out.

"Everyone closhe to me!" Lisa commanded as she pushed the button, once again the bright lights started flashing around but the whirring noise could hardly be heard over the sound of gunfire.

Suddenly, the Loud kids found themselves back in what they hoped was the 21st century. There was no smoke now, the day was bright, and the field was akin to a calm, grassy meadow. Luna hoisted Lincoln up into her arms with as much strength as she could and ran in the direction of the parking lot. The rest of her sisters following, Luan still carrying Lily whose wails had subsided, but was still weeping. They saw their parents having a conversation with a park ranger.

"Oh, there's our children, but something doesn't seem-Oh my gosh!" Mrs. Loud exclaimed when she saw Lincoln's limp form in Luna's arms. The park ranger immediately radioed for help and two more park rangers rushed out carrying first aid kits and did what their training allowed them to do when someone was seriously injured.

The Loud sisters explained what had happened, Lisa even surrendered over her time machine. She was too ashamed to think about wanting to use it again. The park rangers were naturally skeptical about the idea of a four-year old constructing something that they themselves had only heard about in science fiction movies. But with a boy gravely injured there was no time to argue.

An ambulance arrived to get Lincoln to the nearest hospital, Mr. Loud made sure to follow close behind. The entire drive there was uncomfortable, nobody, not even Luan who had a tendency to say something at even the worst of times could think of nothing to say.

The hospital waiting room looked as though it was designed to be a place of misery. A heap of old magazines and newspapers littered the coffee tables, a small number of kiddie toys, probably not in great condition laid heaped up in a bin in a corner. But even the twins didn't feel like playing with them. No, the family took up a good chunk of the waiting room chairs, waiting in patient silence. Lily had fallen asleep in her mother's arms. After an hour the door opened and the doctor came in with news about Lincoln.

"We believe he's going to make it, he suffered a great deal of nerve damage in his shoulder and the lower part of his right leg. A few veins were damaged and that'll take time to heal. We were quick to remove the foreign objects from his body, I don't know if he wants to keep them as mementoes, but judging by what they are, they could be worth something. He will likely have to wear casts for a period of time, and be in a wheelchair, but you can go see him now; two at a time," he said.

The Loud family breathed a sigh of relief and two at a time visited Lincoln. The doctor didn't count Lily so Mrs. Loud was able to carry her in when she and her husband went in. He was propped up on a hospital pillow, due to injury on his shoulder he couldn't lie down completely. He spoke gently to each of his family members; they were all saying how lucky they were to still have him. Lori and Leni each had to escort one of the twins in so that they wouldn't cause mischief in Lincoln's room together.

"We really thought we were going to lose you bro," said Luna when it was her and Luan's turn to visit, they each held one of his hands with a gentle grip.

"Honestly, if it hadn't been for your quick acting, there's a good chance you might have," Lincoln replied with a weak laugh. Once it was Lynn and Lucy's turn to see him, the doctor allowed them to take Lisa in with them.

"Lincoln, I am sho shorry. Thish was my entire fault," said Lisa, holding her brother's hand and coming close to crying.

"Lisa, I forgive you, there's no way anyone could predict something like that, a lot of people try to see Civil War reenactments, not many get to actually live them," he said.

"But you almost paid a horrible prische for it," Lisa replied.

"Lisa, our encounter with those soldiers was out of your control. They were responsible for their own actions, not you," said Lincoln, doing his best to make Lisa feel better.

A few days later, the Loud family was sent a copy of a journal entry that had recently been found from Antietam. In this journal entry, a Confederate officer told how a scouting patrol found a group of children they thought were spies, and that one of them single-handedly took them out. They believed one of the children to be related to Abraham Lincoln and had attempted to take him out. None of the commanding officers believed the story. The author of the entry simply wrote it down because he was in need of a good laugh with all the death that had been surrounding him. In fact, it seemed as though Civil War historians had for almost two centuries overlooked this particular journal entry!