Once we reached the house, we got the horses unloaded and released them into the pasture. I cleaned out the trailer before backing it up into the large carport for the trailers and unhitching before parking my truck into the driveway. By this time, it was nearly two hours later. We already had some hay here, but it was agreed that we would go for the horse feed store and then come back home to get the stalls set up.
"C'mon." I told my brother and he nodded and hopped into the passenger's seat of my truck. I got in and drove to the nearest feed store and we got one of those flat carts with a little basket and we bought the following some stall hay and softwood pellets for the stalls. We also bought feed and treat nuggets as well as hoof care products and shampoo and other grooming products. We paid for everything and loaded it up in the truck bed and went home.
Once back home, we put everything away and put the food in the correct buckets and labeled them. We were done about 5 hours later, around 6 in the evening. But now, we had our bedrooms to unpack. Silas ordered out a pizza for just the night, and after we ate, we headed to our separate bedrooms to unpack and get set up and settled in. It didn't take me too long to make up my queen-sized bed and put all my clothes away or put all of my books on my bookshelf. The bittersweet part was unpacking and putting away my photo albums, a lot of which Andrew was in.
Andrew took part in 19 major battles, some of the most famous ones being Galveston, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas Calvary. We didn't see each other that often, but we did whenever we could, and that was enough for me. We weren't always at the same place at the same time. He was ordered wherever he was needed. We did however, were in some of the same battles.
Both battles of Galveston, Sabine Pass II and Chickamauga. And also a few other minor scuffles, but nothing too bad. I wasn't there when he died, a part of me was grateful that I wasn't, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to handle it. I could barely handle it when he came to me, injured, needing to be patched up, which was probably pretty often, nothing major, all minor, just a few scratches here and there or some cuts. One of more concern one time was when he was grazed by a bullet, and another was when he was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg, when he was shot in the shoulder, they had to fish out the bullet, patch him up and sent him home until he was needed for Sabine Pass II in September and we were officially (and finally) married July 17th, 1863.
-Flashback-
Battle of Sabine Pass II - Texas
It was September 8th, in the year of 1863 and we were in Sabine Pass, for the second battle of this place and the battle wasn't over yet, but it had ceased for the night. All of the soldiers turned patients were stable for now and most where sleeping.
I was in the main tent, reading by the candlelight, even though it wasn't quite dark yet, although the sun had just gone down and the fires and cannons were coming to a slow pace, before they stopped altogether, singling the end of battle for the night, but I knew as soon as the sun rose the very next morning, the battle would start up once again.
And it wasn't long before Andrew found me and looked at me, sheepishly. I saw his face before his arm, "What did you do?" I asked, and then noticed his arm, where his arm and shirt were stained with blood. "What happened?" I asked, putting my book aside and stood up.
"I uh, I dodge a bullet, or at least I thought I did, apparently not." He stated, rubbing the back of his head.
I sighed. "C'mon then." I took his hand and led my husband to where we kept the medical supplies. I then had him to sit down on a stool after having him remove his coat and his shirt, so I could better assess his injury.
Andrew removed his outer coat and then his shirt, so I could tend to his arm, before sitting down. The wound was on his bicep, and upon further investigation of it, I found that the bullet simply grazed him.
"Well, the bullet only grazed you, so that's good." I murmured, and he nodded. I cleaned the area around the wound up. "Though must you always do this and worry me half to death every time I see you?" I shot him a look when he chuckled and bandaged his wound and secured it.
"But you're good to go now." I told him. "Just don't let me see you back here with another injury."
He chuckled again. "Thank you." He stood up from the stool after buttoning his shirt back up and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me softly and gently as I hugged him back.
-Back to present-
At that time, I had no idea that in less than a year, my husband would be killed, and life as we know would be forever changed. Shaking my head, I sighed and went to bed.
