A/N: So I didn't get the writing I planned on doing while I was on vacation. Instead I watched The Book Thief and The Adventures of Robin Hood (with Gone With The Wind actress, Olivia de Havilland and she did remarkable in that role, too).
...
Part One, Chapter Thirteen
After Gettysburg
...
Hushed and grim, Atlanta turned painful eyes towards the far away little town of Gettysburg... and a page of history waited for three days whiled two nations came to death grips on the farm lands of Pennsylvania...
...
People all awaited fearfully as they waited for the lists of people who had been killed, injured, captured or missing to be distributted. So many of them were killed and many people were crying. The conductor of a band hand the band play cheerful music, but some of the younger boys in the band were crying.
Uncle Lightning, Aunt Dawn's coachman walked up to Courtney and Zoey, still in mourning, who were sitting in a carriage.
"They was fightin' fot them so it just got tore in half," said Uncle Lightning handing the list to Zoey.
"Courtney, you look," said Zoey nervously, passing the torn list over to Courtney. "The W's at the end."
"Wellman, Wendell, White, Whitner, Wilkins, Williams, Woolsey, Workman," Courtney read off the list.
"Courtney, you've passed him," said Zoey joyfully. She proceeded to breath a heavy sigh of relief.
"Oh, he isn't there!" said Courtney, also proceeding to take a deap sigh of relief. "He isn't there!"
"Mike's safe!" Zoey said with cheer, folding her hand hands, closing her eyes and lifting her head up. "He isn't listed.
"Oh, he's safe," said Courtney happily, as her face broke out into a beaming smiled and her eyes lighting up, "he safe."
"Oh, Courtney, you're so sweet to worry about Mike like this for me," said Zoey, hugging Courtney close.
They looked up and saw Doctor Dave Meade, his wife Sky and their son Cody sitting in a carriage across the way. Sky was crying into a handkerchief.
"I must go to her," said Zoey sadly as she stood up and began walking over to the Meade's carriage.
"Don't, my dear," said Dave, his arm around his sobbing wife, trying to comfort her. "Not here. Let's go home."
"Dr. Meade," said Zoey nervoudly as she reached the Meade's carriage, "not..." she began to trail off.
"Yes," said Dave sadly with his arms still around his sobbing mess of a wife, "our boy."
"I was making these mittens for him," said Sky, still crying. "He won't need them now."
"Mother, I'm going to enlist!" Cody declared passionately standing up. "I'll show 'em. I'll kill all those Yankees."
"Cody Meade, you hush your mouth," said Zoey pushing him down. "Do you think it will help your mother yo have you off getting shot too? I never heard of anything so silly.
...
Courtney sat reading the names of those who had been killed, injured, missing, or captured when Duncan Butler rode up to her on a horse.
"It's a black day, Courtney," said Duncan, taking off his hat as the horse stopped. "You haven't had any bad news, have you?"
"Mike's safe," Courtney said happily, holding her frilly black parosol over her veil bonneted head.
"I'm glad for Mrs. Wilkes sake," said Duncan. He sounded a bit indifferent to the whole situation.
"But, Duncan, there are so many others," said Courtney, her happy tone being replaced with sadness.
"Many of your friends?" Duncan asked her and he had a slightly curious tone in his voice.
"Just about every family in the county," said Courtney. "The Tarleton boys, Duncan, both of them.
"Yes, look at them," Duncan said with the slightest hint of distaste in his voice, but also a bit of sadness. "All these poor tragic people. The South sinking to it's knees. It'll never rise again. The cause... The cause of living in the past is dying right in front of us."
"I've never heard you talk like that before," said Courtney with a slight tone of curiosity in her voice.
"I'm angry," said Duncan. "Waste always makes me angry angry. And that's what all this is, sheer waste."
Courtney looked at him with a look of sadness. Duncan saw this and he gave her a charming smile.
"But don't be downcast," said Duncan. "Mike Wilkes is still alive to come home to the women who love him... both of them."
Courtney looked away and back at the list. Duncan gave another charming smile and rode away on his horse.