A/N-This is the story formerly known as Jonathon's Story.
Before Jonathon told him anything, a flood of memories came to Jonathon...warm memories but it was mostly of his mother, he realized that...he didn't even know if his dad even loved him...his dad was never mean to him but Jonathon didn't even know if he really loved his youngest son.
His earliest memory of his mother is her sweetly kissing him when he was sick in bed but now, he was sick in heart. He looked up at his older brother who was wondering and looking at Jonathon then Jonathon finally told Andrew, "We were going Wyoming, Maw didn't want to stay at the house thinking about you being here in the war and...we were just about to leave Kentucky and go into Indiana when we came upon this group of soldiers from the south, they were nice, really nice Andrew" Andrew shakes his head and silently asks for his brother to go on. "They helped us, they were dirty and stinky but paw didn't mind sharing what we had and a few of them even did hunting for us all! We...had some trouble with the wagon but one of them was a wheel master so they helped us...sniff..."
Tears begin running down young Jonathon's face as her remembers the worst and he gathers inward strength then says, "W-we had said our goodbyes a few weeks ago and we had just crossed the line into the next state when...when..." Andrew's heart pounds and he asks his brother, "What? Jonathon, go on" Jonathon sighs then wipes his face with his sleeve then says, "One of the soldiers told us stories about the Indians, how some were nice but some were mean, mostly because of how they have been treated...so some came by and they were mean, real mean Andrew, paw tried to outrun them but...they shot flaming arrows at the wagon...the wagon caught on fire...the soldiers saw and came and tried to help but, but they couldn't..paw tried to make maw and I jump off, I did but, but for some reason Maw didn't, the last I saw of her she was still in the wagon and the flames..."
Jonathon falls crying into his brothers huge chest and Andrew wraps his arms around his brother and they both cry then Andrew asks Jonathon, "But how did you get here after only a few weeks? That's hundreds of miles to go by yourself" Jonathon tells him, "The soldiers, they did what they could but about a week of traveling, they got word that they were assigned someplace so one of them put me on a train traveling to this part of the state...the soldierput me on the train and told me to stay out of sight, don't let anybody see me or I would get thrown off. I did because I wanted to get to you so bad Andrew, I would have done anything to get here to you" Jonathon cries some more as does his brother then they hear a older voice saying, "Private Garvy..." Jonathon looks up and looks at the older man coming who holds his arm with blood pouring from the arm then Andrew says, "Yes sir?"
The senior officer then asks Jonathon, "How much of the unit is left Private?" Andrew turns his head and looks out at the deadly scene of soldiers dead in the field and only a few walking away then he says back to the officer, "I would say only a third left sir"
"Damn, that's what I was a afraid of" says the officer, Andrew looks at his wound then says, "Excuse me sir but your arm looks like it needs attending" The officer looks at his wound then says, "I was just on my way to see the doctor, come with me Private"
The officer looks at Jonathon and asks, "Who is this?" Andrew thinks on his feet and says, "This is our drummer boy, Jonathon, Jonathon, you remember General Collins?" Jonathon can tell by his brother's eyes that he best say yes and with a slight tremble in his voice, he says, "Y-yes, I do" The officer then asks, "Where's your drum boy?" Andrew bends down and picks up a dirty drum from the ground and says, "Here it is Jonathon"
Jonathon looks at his brother is surprise then says, "You found it!" "You lost it just behind this tree" . Andrew walks away from his brother and goes to Officer Collins while Andrew looks back behind the tree and sees the body of the real drummer boy of that outfit, a boy of about 13, or 14, his same age with his chest near torn apart and the look of death on his face and Jonathon asks, "Now how did I miss that?" He looks at the body of the boy a little bit more then he walks off after his big brother and General Collins.
A/N-Some of you may be wondering why a General would ask a Private a question but if half your unit was gone, what would you do? Reviews please.