Chapter 24: The Third Morning

Dib and Tak awoke to a bugler trumpeting his instrument. Dib opened his eyes and sat upright as if the musical horn-blowing was an exploding shell. Tak glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. Dib groaned and rubbed his face sleepily.

"Ugh." He complained. He shook his head quickly to try to wake up. "Is that…reveal or revel…whatever?"

"Reveille…and yes. So get up darling, before I throw a bucket of water on you." Dib stopped in mid-stretch and looked at Tak, wondering if she'd seriously do such a thing. Then he saw the edges of her lips curl up. He smiled.

"What time is it anyway?" The boy asked, looking out the window. It looked like it was still night.

"Dunno." Tak shrugged. Just then, the same friendly officer of General Hancock's staff that had given them food the evening before, happened by. "Excuse me, sir…" Tak hailed. "What time is it?"

"About 4:30, miss." He said with a nod. "You two want some coffee?"

"No thank you." Tak said.

"Yes I want some please!" Dib blurted out. The officer laughed.

"I'll forage you a cup. Hancock doesn't need you right now but you two ought to make yourselves seen about headquarters."

"Yes sir." The two replied. The officer hurried off and returned with a metal cup full of warm, strong coffee. Dib took it, thanked the officer, and drank the brew down quickly.

"Whew…man." Dib commented, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "That's about the strongest coffee I've ever heard of." Suddenly, the sound of distant gunfire pealed in the stillness. Dib leapt up and looked around. "Maybe we're under attack…" He gasped. "My rifle…where…"

"Calm down, Dib." Tak said calmly, standing, stretching and placing her kepi on her head. "It's some distance off."

"Oh." Dib said, feeling a little better. He looked around, and found his jacket and pulled it on. He put on his kepi, and buckled his belt around his waist, making sure to add the box of cartridges for his new rifle. He slung the weapon on his back and the two walked outside, where many of the soldiers seemed oblivious to the sound of a small battle a short distance away. They were busy frying salted pork in skillets, and making coffee in pots over their campfires. Nearby, a large group of soldiers was standing in formation with a high-ranking sergeant screaming at them to 'wake up and act like soldiers'. An officer, probably the commander of the company or regiment, was nearby, leaning on a tree lazily, watching with a smile. A stern looking man with a short beard, a general as Tak discerned from the single gold star on each shoulder, approached. The officer at the tree suddenly stood as straight as his leaning-post and saluted.

"Are the green recruits taking to drill accordingly, captain?" The general asked, folding his arms behind him.

"Yes sir, General Webb." The officer replied. "My sergeant-major is doing a fine job."

"Ah." General Webb said, nodding slowly. "Hard to show new recruits how to be proper soldiers with their company commander resting under a tree like an old grandmother." The captain looked wide-eyed at General Webb a moment. Webb motioned with his head. "Take command of your company, captain." He said expectantly.

"Yes sir!" The captain saluted. Dib and Tak moved on, searching for General Hancock, and somebody to tell them what was going on off to their left rear. They soon got an answer, as Hancock appeared riding toward them with a flag-bearer and another orderly. The flag of Hancock's second Corps, a blue pennant with a white Maltese cross, and a red '2' in the center, flapped in the wind. Hancock spied his two young messengers and came to a halt. Dib and Tak saluted their commander, and Hancock saluted soldierly.

"Good morning." Hancock greeted cheerfully.

"Good morning, General." Tak replied. "We were looking for you, sir. What's happening on the other side of the hill over there?"

"Ah, a slight engagement between our Eleventh Corps and part of an enemy corps. Not to worry though. Last I heard, Ruger was holding out. I'm afraid it may be a diversionary move though."

"A diversionary move, sir?" Dib asked, still unfamiliar with army terms.

"They're trying to distract us into thinking they're attacking one place…" Tak explained, "So they can attack another."

"Well put." Hancock smiled. "Walk with me." He began to ride at a trot with Dib and Tak walking next to his horse. "They attacked our left flank yesterday, and saw us reinforce there." Dib began to remember Little Round Top and Chamberlain's charge, and wondered how Colonel Chamberlain was doing. "They also hit us in the wheat field down there, so they've felt out our strength all along the line. Now, they're attacking our right flank, but not en masse." Hancock stopped his horse and stared toward the sound of the action. The sound of cannons firing rolled like thunder. "It has me troubled."

"What do you think will happen, general?" Dib asked, glancing out over the field toward the enemy positions apprehensively. Hancock sighed, and clicked his tongue, urging his mount into a slow gait again. "That I do not know, young man. I believe when they do attack, they will probably try to overwhelm our center. Right here." Tak looked around at the line of regiments, the batteries of cannon pointing toward the enemy. She looked out over the field, which now seemed a little wider. It looked impossible. No army would try to charge across a field like this…not toward such a strong enemy position. It was inconceivable. Maybe General Hancock was just being paranoid. Tak looked back up to her commander, seated in the saddle like a knight of old. He was an excellent general, and he knew his craft. But could he be right? Hancock stopped his horse and climbed off. He walked to the low stone wall, and leaned against the tall wheel of a large cannon, looking out over the field.

"Well, Lo is out there." The general said, almost to himself. Dib and Tak came to stand beside Hancock.

"Your friend?" Dib asked sympathetically.

"Mm." Hancock answered. "I saw the flags earlier of Pickett's Division. I heard that Lo Armistead is commanding a brigade under Pickett."

"Pickett…" Tak whispered, thinking about the name, and where she had heard it before. She glanced at Dib. He was trying to mask a look of horror. She remembered: Dib had said something about Pickett their first day here. 'He leads a charge and everybody in it dies or something…' Was that what he'd said?

"The cruel irony of this war," Hancock said, turning away from the meadow below. "Best friends, looking at each other from a mile away, made enemies by a war between brothers." He sighed again. "Well, you two care to run some dispatches to General Meade for me?"

"We would be happy to, sir." Tak replied, her mind turning over the possibility that if Dib was right, her commander's best friend could be killed before this battle was over…and maybe Hancock too. The general handed her a bunch of papers, folded in half. "We'll get them there as fast as we can." Tak said. Hancock smiled.

"I have no doubts about your abilities. Now off with you." The two jogged off toward the house General Meade was using as his headquarters, Tak tucking the papers into her jacket's inside pocket.

"Dib," She said gravely. "Please tell me you were only guessing about this Pickett. Tell me you could have been wrong." Dib looked at Tak sadly.

"Tak…that's like the only thing I remember from history class about this battle…Pickett's Charge. A big charge, and like most of the people involved in it died."

"Dib, this is really bad, you know that?!" Tak exclaimed.

"I know!" Dib cried. "I don't want General Hancock to die, or Colonel Chamberlain, or General Buford. I don't want General Hancock's friend to die either! I just want it to end! I want everyone to stop killing each other, and just learn to live with each other's differences!" They stopped, and Tak listened to Dib. She had never seen such a change in somebody like she had Dib in the last two days. War had made him wise beyond his years, it seemed. "So many good people have died already, and I can't stop thinking about it, Tak. All the sons, the dads, the brothers, all the friends. They're dead, and what does it accomplish?"

"They died fighting for what they believed in." Tak said. "And they believed enough in their cause to die for it." She spoke, but for some reason the words sounded hollow to her, meaningless.

"And will anyone remember them, or why they died?" Dib asked. "I mean, like look at what I knew about this war. What people from my time knew about it. Nothing! Like these people didn't matter anymore, like their lives and their deaths were some stupid fact in a school textbook that had nothing to do with them. But this war has everything to do with them. These people are dying for them, Tak…for us. They're dying so that people in the future can live in a world that they are trying to make better." Tak hugged Dib. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Dib, I swear to you that we're gonna get through this, okay?" She whispered. "And when we do, we will never forget these men, and what they did here." Dib nodded. "We'll build monuments, we'll write books, we'll do whatever it takes to see that they are remembered." Dib sniffled, and pulled away.

"Yeah." He whispered. "We can't let the world forget…"

"Now come on, my philosopher." Tak said. "We have these messages to deliver."

And so at last, the third day has begun, and to you who know your history, I'm sure you've been waiting on day three for the last 20 some-odd chapters. What will happen? Will The trio of time travelers survive the battle? Will their being at Gettysburg change the course of history? What will become of Hancock and Armistead? You will just have to wait to find out. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen problems, I can only post at the local library, so my chapters will not be coming as quickly as they once did, but rest assured, I will try to get the next installment up as soon as I can. So until then, please give me your input or questions. Until next chapter, cheerio.